An Arlington County Fire Department employee has been charged in connection to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
An FBI affidavit says Brian Holmes was part of a mob of rioters that assaulted police officers as they pushed their way towards the Capitol building.
Holmes was reportedly arrested earlier today. More from the Associated Press:
Also on Friday, a West Virginia man employed by the fire department in Arlington County, Virginia, was arrested on charges that he assaulted police officers during the riot. Brian Holmes was captured on video pushing two police officers up stairs outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit.
Fire department employees told the FBI in July that they had worked with Holmes for roughly one year. Fire officials didn’t immediately respond to requests for more information about Holmes’ employment.
Holmes was seen in multiple images posted online in the wake of Jan. 6, wearing a gray Virginia Tech hoodie and pulling a U.S. Capitol Police officer toward the crowd, the FBI said. He was given the nickname “#greypuller” among amateur sleuths working to help federal authorities identify rioters.
The affidavit notes that the FBI “received multiple tips identifying #greypuller as Brian Holmes… a West Virginia resident who at the time worked at the Fire Department of Arlington County, Virginia.”
“On or about July 3, 2024, I interviewed two employees at the Arlington County Fire Department, ACFD Employee 1 and ACFD Employee 2,” an FBI agent wrote. “Both employees identified the individual shown in Image 1 above as HOLMES and both individuals stated, in sum and substance, that they had worked with HOLMES for about a year or more.”
The affidavit also provides quotes from Holmes, in videos of the Capitol attack seized by the FBI.
“Are you ready to speak Chinese?” he reportedly said to officers guarding the Capitol. “Because that’s what’s going to happen, that’s what’s going to happen if you let these motherf–kers steal this election.”
Holmes was not on duty for ACFD on Jan. 6, 2021, the FBI said. Several on-duty Arlington firefighters were recognized for their valor in connection to their response to the Capitol that day.
