The leader of the far right group the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio was arrested on Monday after he destroyed a Black Lives Matter sign at a historic black church in Washington D.C during a protest in December.
Tarrio was picked up by D.C. police shortly after he landed in Washington to attend rallies protesting Donald Trump’s loss in November’s election.
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Metropolitan Police Department said Tarrio was arrested and charged with destruction of property. He previously admitted to burning one of the signs from the church last month in an interview he did with The Washington Post. He said he would plead guilty, pay the church the cost of the banner and surrender to authorities if criminal charges were filed against him.
He was also slapped with a ‘Possession of High Capacity Feeding Device” charge because at the time of his arrest the convicted felon was in possession of two high capacity firearm magazines which is banned in D.C.
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His arrest came hours after another church, Metropolitan AME, filed a lawsuit against him, alleging he jumped over the church’s fence, tore down a six-foot-long plastic Black Lives Matter sign and ripped it up on the sidewalk during the same protest, Forbes reports.
Supporters of Donald Trump are arriving in D.C for Trump’s January 6th ‘wild protest’ as Congress votes to certify Joe Biden’s victory. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser urged residents Monday to stay away from the city’s downtown and to “not engage with demonstrators who come to our city seeking confrontation.”
