Two men, including one with Georgia connections, were charged in federal court for their suspected roles in Wednesday’s riot at the Capitol, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., announced Sunday.
Eric Gavelek Munchel of Tennessee is believed to be the person known as the “zip tie guy” for carrying plastic restraints during the incursion. The FBI also said he was carrying “an item in a holster on his right hip, and a cell phone mounted on his chest with the camera facing outward, ostensibly to record events that day.”
The profile on Munchel’s apparent Facebook page indicated he was from Blue Ridge, Georgia, and attended Fannin County High School. Records show he previously lived in Fulton County and had faced battery charges in an incident in 2013. Munchel was arrested in Fulton County in 2014 on charges of marijuana possession and speeding to which he entered a negotiated plea, according to Fulton County records.
The federal charges he now faces after being arrested in Nashville, Tennessee, are one count of knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and one count of violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
Also facing the same charges Sunday was Larry Rendell Brock of Texas, who the FBI said was “wearing a green helmet, green tactical vest with patches, black and camo jacket, and beige pants holding a white flex cuff, which is used by law enforcement to restrain and/or detain subjects.”
» Tap or click here for AJC’s coverage of the Capitol riot and aftermath.
