CHARLOTTE, N.C (TNS) — Two more people from South Carolina have been arrested in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington announced on Wednesday.
Christopher George Rockey, 54, of Cross, in Berkeley County, is charged in a criminal complaint with the felony offenses of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers and civil disorder.
Edward Picquet Jr., 61, of Hollywood, in Charleston County, is charged with a felony offense of civil disorder in a criminal complaint filed in the District of Columbia.
They are the 24th and 25th persons from South Carolina arrested in the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol, according to a review of federal court records of each defendant by The State. So far, 18 of those charged have pleaded guilty, and one has been found guilty by a District of Columbia jury. Charges against the rest are pending.
FBI agents in South Carolina and Washington investigated the case. Evidence in the case came from informants, video and geolocation data from cellphones, according to the complaint.
The two men appeared in Charleston federal court Wednesday afternoon before Magistrate Judge Mary Gordon Baker and were each released on a $50,000 unsecured bond. Picquet is represented by attorney Nathan Williams; Rockey, by Cameron Blazer.
Both Rockey and Picquet entered the Capitol building about 2:23 p.m. on the day of the riot in the early waves of people who breached the Capitol, which was closed to the public that day. They then moved through the building with “a crowd of rioters” and exited at 2:44 p.m., according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office press release. Rockey was wearing a green helmet, green sweatshirt, and camouflage pants, and Picquet’s garb was jeans, a dark vest, and a green or beige long-sleeve shirt or sweater, according to the complaint.
At 4:34 p.m. that day, video footage shows Rockey “pushing and grabbing a Metropolitan Police Department officer’s riot shield and striking the officer in the face as law enforcement attempted to clear the area,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office press release.
“Picquet is then seen moving up to the front of the crowd of rioters, placing his hands on the back of Rockey, grabbing his sweatshirt, and pushing him forward directly into the line of officers,” the release said.
Court documents say that the two men remained on the Upper Terrace and, in a separate incident, Rockey grabbed a law officer’s baton and another officer’s riot shield.
Numerous photos released by the Justice Department on Wednesday depict two men described as Picquet and Rockey in the thick of what appear to be violent confrontations between rioters and police.
In the 35 months since the Jan. 6 riots, more than 1,230 individuals have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including more than 440 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington said. The investigation remains ongoing.
In the hours before the riot, then-President Donald Trump falsely told a rally of thousands that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from him and urged his supporters to march on the Capitol to stop the formal certification process of counting the electoral votes.
Some 60 lawsuits by Trump allies alleging voting fraud in that election have been tossed out of court. Trump’s own attorney general, William Barr, told him that an FBI investigation had found no evidence of fraud massive enough to have influenced the election. Trump currently faces ongoing criminal charges in both Washington and Georgia that he and others conspired to overturn a free and fair election.
Both Rockey and Picquet also face various misdemeanor charges, including knowingly and illegally entering and remaining in a restricted building, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building and parading, demonstrating or picketing in the Capitol buildings.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Janet Henderson represented the government in Wednesday’s hearing. The case will be transferred to Washington, where it will be handled by another prosecutor.
George Rockey (circled in red) and Edward Picquet (circled in yellow), both of South Carolina, were caught by a police body camera as they were alleged to have stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (U.S. Attorney’s Office/TNS)
