An Air Force veteran clad in riot gear has been identified after joining the MAGA mob in storming the Capitol during Wednesday insurrection.
53-year-old Larry Rendall Brock Jr. is a highly decorated retired lieutenant colonel who was awarded six Air Medals, three Meritorious Service Medals, and three Aerial Achievement Medals according to The New Yorker.
During the riot at the Capitol, the veteran, who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, was seen walking away from Nancy Pelosi’s office in footage shared by ITV News.
Following the allegations that he participated in ransacking the House Speaker’s office, Brock Jr. insisted he had stopped outside the office and never actually walked through the door.
In photos from the Capitol, the 53-year-old father-of-three from Dallas is seen walking around the building and talking to rioters while clad in riot gear. He was reportedly also wearing zip cuffs.
Following the Wednesday insurgence, Brock admitted that he was the man in the pictures but denied entering Pelosi’s office and engaging in violence. He also insisted he thought it was okay to enter the Capitol building even though it was clear that the police were attempting to keep the rioters at bay.
Speaking of the zip cuffs, Brock told The New Yorker that he had “found” them on the floor and picked them up in order to return them to a police officer.
“I wish I had not picked those up. My thought process there was I would pick them up and give them to an officer when I see one. I didn’t do that because I had put them in my coat, and I honestly forgot about them,” he claimed.
The veteran also insisted he opposed violence and destruction and only wore body armor in order to protect himself from “BLM or Antifa.”
As the 53-year-old father said, he joined the Wednesday rally in response to President Trump’s calls for a protest.
“The President asked for his supporters to be there to attend, and I felt like it was important, because of how much I love this country, to actually be there,” Brock said as he admitted he believed Trump’s election fraud allegations.
After the troubling photos of Brock have surfaced, two of his family members revealed how the 53-year-old, who calls himself a patriot, began changing and developed a “weird sense of power.”
“[He started with] weird rage talk, basically, saying he’s willing to get in trouble to defend what he thinks is right, which is Trump being the President, I guess,” one family member told The New Yorker.
Both also insisted that Brock started making racist comments as they suggested he was likely influenced by white-supremacist views.
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Replaced!