Dominic Box had a history of organizing protests, but nothing close to the Jan. 6 pro-Trump rally in Washington, D.C.
“Civilians are trying to break into Congress is what they’re saying. We need to get up there. Let’s go,” the Savannah resident said in one of the shaky videos preserved by online sleuths who have worked to identify individuals involved in the riot.
The video shows Box walking toward the Capitol in a sea of people.
“President Trump has called on all of everybody here, all 250,000 of us, to march down Pennsylvania Avenue,” he said. “Well over 250,000 of us marching to the halls of Congress.”
In another livestream, shared through a Facebook group called Savannah Freedom Exchange, Box was inside the Capitol itself as he and dozens of rioters forced their way through a line of Capitol Police.
“This is awesome,” he shouted.
That was Wednesday. On Friday, Vaden Nissan, where Box worked in online sales, fired him.
“He is no longer an employee of ours,” Jane Thatcher, president of Vaden Automotive, said.
Thatcher would not comment on why Box had been fired, except that his actions in Washington did not represent the company.
“He was certainly on his own time and not ours,” she said. “All I can say is we are not affiliated with him in any way.”
Box declined to comment when reached by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and he has not been charged with any crimes associated with the events at the nation’s Capitol.
Earlier this year, Box was involved in helping organize rallies and protests around the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory, including staging a “Save the Children” rally this summer where signs promoted the conspiracy theory that a cabal of political and Hollywood elites operated a secret pedophile ring.
In a 2018 interview on a Facebook live stream called “Sales Hustler Spotlight,” first reported by The Current, Box discussed his struggles with drugs and alcohol and his belief in conspiracy theories about aliens, the Kennedy assassination and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Box joins a growing number of people who took part in the assault on the Capitol who have lost their jobs or been arrested, many of whom were identified by private researchers and activists on the internet using selfies and videos posted by the participants themselves.
Apart from Box, online sleuths have identified Americus lawyer McCall Calhoun and former Georgia resident Eric Munchel among the hundreds who breached the U.S. Capitol.
Munchel grew up in Blue Ridge and attended Fannin County High School, according to his social media profile. He has been identified the “zip-tie guy,” because he allegedly carried handfuls of plastic ties used as temporary restraints by police into the Capitol. Federal authorities announced his arrest Sunday.
The FBI also arrested Cleveland Grover Meredith, a longtime Georgia resident who recently moved to Hayesville, N.C., on weapons charges and charges that he sent messages threatening to kill House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Meredith was behind a notorious QAnon billboard on Cobb Parkway in Acworth.
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