A Raytown, Missouri, man who federal prosecutors say assaulted police and carried a pitchfork on the Capitol grounds during the Jan. 6 riot is facing nine charges, including multiple felonies.
Christopher Brian Roe, 39, was arrested Tuesday on some of the most serious charges to date among the 29 Capitol riot defendants from Missouri, federal court records show. The 27-page probable cause affidavit filed with the criminal complaint contains 48 photos that show a man it says is Roe breaching the Capitol, repeatedly scuffling with police and using a metal bicycle rack to try to break open a door.
Roe was charged July 12 with assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers; civil disorder; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; destruction of government property; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; act of physical violence in the Capitol ground or buildings; and parading, picketing and demonstrating in a Capitol building.
The probable cause affidavit said a search warrant served on Google showed that a cellphone associated with Roe’s email address was within the Capitol Rotunda, hallways and points of entry for about two hours and 12 minutes on Jan. 6.
Investigators then used Roe’s driver’s license photo to conduct a search of images and videos from the Capitol building that day, the affidavit said. The search turned up an image from a police body-worn camera of a person matching Roe’s description. The man wore a red baseball cap, glasses, an American flag neck gaiter, a University of Kansas sweatshirt, black T-shirt and an orange-and-black backpack, it said.
A cropped version of the image was shown to a law enforcement officer who had arrested Roe in an unrelated matter on Dec. 9, 2021, the document said. That officer identified the person as Roe.
Roe had attended the “Stop the Steal” rally on the Ellipse before arriving at the Capitol, the affidavit said. A video taken at the rally showed Roe standing next to a pitchfork stuck in the ground and topped with a red baseball cap, it said.
“On the video, Roe said that he has zipties and duct tape, with the latter visible on the outside of his backpack,” the affidavit said. “After this statement, the person filming the video tells Roe to put his knife away, because 3 inch knives ‘are the max.’ Roe responds, ‘thanks, I appreciate it.’ As the person walks away, he said Roe had a ‘six inch dagger.’”
When Roe arrived at the Capitol, the document said, he faced a line of U.S. Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department officers. Around 1:25 p.m., it said, he stood a few feet back from police, holding the pitchfork, which was pointed upward. He eventually flipped it so it pointed down.
Roe moved closer to the police line with the pitchfork still in hand, the affidavit said, then grabbed a bicycle rack that was in front of the officers and dragged it toward the crowd. The officers responded by pushing Roe away, which caused him to drop the pitchfork.
Roe quickly picked up the pitchfork as another altercation erupted between a rioter and a Capitol Police officer, the document said. With the pitchfork in his right hand, it said, Roe moved forward and pushed the officer with his left hand, then wrapped his arm around the officer’s arm.
One officer sprayed chemical irritant, the affidavit said, striking Roe in the face. As he recoiled, he dropped the pitchfork again and retreated into the crowd. He next appeared on the West Lawn of the Capitol and worked his way to the Upper West Terrace.
At 2:38 p.m., Roe followed other rioters into the Capitol through the Upper West Terrace door and went to the Rotunda, the affidavit said. There, he handed his cellphone to another rioter, who took a photo of him in front of a statue. Roe continued on to Statuary Hall, then stood with rioters who were gathering outside the House of Representatives chamber. He pulled his neck gaiter down, the document said, “and smoked some kind of cigarette.”
Roe arrived at the east entrance of the House of Representatives wing of the Capitol at 2:55 p.m., it said. He stood near a metal detector while officers tried to remove rioters from the building. As an officer, identified by the initials “R.D.,” pushed him toward the exit, Roe forcefully grabbed the metal detector, causing it to shake, the affidavit said.
“Roe then turned back to the officer and said to them, ‘you are protecting traitors and treasonists. They committed treason. And you shot one of us. That’s bullshit. Put your baton down and f***ing join us,’” the affidavit said. “While making these statements, Roe pointed into the Capitol Building in the direction of the House chamber.”
At the same time, it said, a rioter confronted other officers.
“This confrontation eventually became violent, at which point Officer R.D. turned his attention away from Roe to respond to the situation,” the document said. “Roe then pushed towards the fight and shoved Officer R.D. backwards several feet. Roe also wrapped his arm around Officer R.D.’s baton, impeding Officer R.D.’s ability to defend themselves from the rioters.”
Roe exited the Capitol at 2:57 p.m., according to the affidavit, after officers pushed the rioters outside and deployed chemical irritant toward them.
But Roe wasn’t finished, it said. He went to the East Rotunda doors, where a few officers were trying to hold back rioters. At 3:21 p.m., the mob overcame police and rushed inside. Roe entered 10 seconds after the breach, the document said.
“As Roe and the other rioters progressed forward, some rioters, including Roe, breached through the police line at the doors to the Rotunda,” it said. “In response, police closed the doors, separating the two groups of rioters. However, a few seconds later, Roe re-emerged from the Rotunda and held the door open with his body.”
Police pushed him toward the exit, but he stopped halfway there, the affidavit said. When an officer started to push against him with a riot shield, Roe pushed back.
“After jostling with police, Roe then raised his right arm in the air with his hand in a fist,” it said. “As police continued to push Roe towards the door, he maintained his position and blocked police efforts to move the rioters out. At 3:28 P.M., after an officer’s riot shield moved close to his face, Roe grabbed the shield with both hands and pushed it away from himself. Moments later, as he is moved closer to the exit, Roe grabbed onto the arm of another police officer.”
When police tried to push him out of the building at 3:30 p.m., the affidavit said, Roe “spread both of his arms wide and grabbed onto the doors.” He kept holding on to the doors until officers forcefully removed him.
Roe then went to the north door of the Capitol, the document said.
“At approximately 4:16 P.M., rioters were trying to breach into the doors while officers were barricaded inside the Capitol,” it said. “In his own attempt to break down the doors, Roe brought a bike rack into the alcove and rammed it against the inner doors roughly ten times. At points, the door visibly buckled inwards against its hinges after Roe’s strikes.”
Roe is the fourth Missouri resident to be charged since June 12. His arrest comes as the massive Capitol riot investigation has picked up the pace, two-and-a-half years after the Jan. 6 breach.
The arrest tally now stands at nearly 1,100, on charges ranging from demonstrating in a Capitol building to seditious conspiracy. And prosecutors vow to continue tracking down the remainder of the estimated 2,000 to 3,000 protesters who stormed the Capitol, causing nearly $2.9 million in damages.
