Matthew Thomas Krol, 63, was charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers using a dangerous weapon or inflicting bodily injury, in addition to other charges.
Krol, the self-professed executive officer of the Genesee County Volunteer Militia, was arrested in Michigan and is set to make his first court appearance Wednesday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a statement.
Krol was the most recent arrest in the DOJ’s hunt to locate individuals allegedly involved with the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. At least 725 have been arrested so far with more than 235 charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement during the riot. The DOJ said about 140 police officers were assaulted.
According to court documents, still images from video footage show a man believed to be Krol dressed in blue pants, a dark hooded jacket, a red hood and a green backpack. At about 2:30 p.m. Krol was seen at the Capitol pushing his way through the crowd near the east side of the building.
The images show Krol throwing a water bottle at police officers before moving other rioters out of the way. He then rushed toward an officer with the Metropolitan Police Department and proceeded to attack him, the court documents say.
Krol then grabbed the officer and spun him around several times. He pulled the officer into the crowd before stealing the officer’s baton. He turned to the crowd and held up the baton “as if in celebration” and began using it to assault other officers. Images from police body cameras and YouTube videos also show a man believed to be Krol using the baton to attack others, according to court records.
Phone records indicated that Krol traveled from Michigan to Washington, D.C., on January 5 before heading back on January 7. Court records say the phone was in or around the U.S. Capitol building from 1:42 p.m. through 3:01 p.m., while the police footage placed Krol with the officers at about 2:28 p.m.
On April 20, 2021, an anonymous person contacted the FBI identifying Krol from the most-wanted Capitol violence images on Twitter. When the FBI conducted a follow-up interview about a month later, the individual explained that they knew Krol.
The individual told the FBI they had also seen images of Krol attending the protests at the Michigan Capitol and provided a photo that they identified as Krol. The photo at the Michigan Capitol and in D.C. shows Krol appearing to be wearing an American flag tucked into the shoulder of his backpack, according to court documents.
Krol’s case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Department of Justice National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section, the DOJ said in a statement.
Update 2/23/22, 2:01 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
