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Washington DC police arrested the leader of the Proud Boys, accused of burning a Black Lives Matter banner that was torn down from a historic black church in downtown DC in December.
Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, 36, was arrested by agents of the Metropolitan Police Department on Monday after arriving in Washington before protests planned by supporters of US President Donald Trump to coincide with the congressional vote. which is expected on Wednesday to affirm the electoral victory of Joe Biden.
Tarrio was taken into custody after an arrest warrant for destruction of property was issued, police said. He also faced weapons charges after officers found him with two large-capacity firearm magazines when he was arrested, a police spokesman said.
Dinner Allison / AP
Proud Boys frontman Henry “Enrique” Tarrio wears a hat that reads The War Boys during a rally in Portland, Oregon, in September. He has been arrested in Washington DC prior to a pro-Trump rally in the US capital.
A pro-Trump rally in December ended in violence when hundreds of Trump supporters, some wearing the distinctive black and yellow of the Proud Boys, sought clashes with a collective of activists and counter-protesters attempting to exclude them from Black Lives Matter Plaza, an area . near the White House. As night fell, vandals tore down a Black Lives Matter banner and sign from two historic black churches in central Washington and set the banner on fire.
A video posted online showed people pouring an accelerator on a Black Lives Matter banner near Asbury United Methodist Church and setting it on fire on the street while others cheered and cursed last month. One of the videos showed someone approaching about a minute later and using a fire extinguisher to put out the flames.
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Tarrio said The Washington Post he had participated in the burning of the Black Lives Matter banner and said he would plead guilty to the destruction of the property and pay the church for the cost of the banner.
Another video showed men removing a Black Lives Matter sign at the AME Metropolitan Church.
“We just want justice to be served,” the Rev. Dr. Lanther Mills, Asbury’s senior pastor, said in an interview Monday night.
Susan Walsh / AP
There is a sign near the White House in Washington in preparation for a rally on January 6, the day Congress is scheduled to meet to formally finalize the results of the presidential election.
The church community is “in some way, of course, feeling some relief” after the arrest, Mills added. Still, he said, “we remain concerned” by the large number of protesters expected in the area.
Mills said Asbury saw another Black Lives Matter sign taken from her location over the Christmas break, prompting her to formally request additional protection for the church during protests planned for Wednesday. Local police have already begun conducting additional surveillance in the area, he said.
A police spokesman said last month that investigators were looking into the incidents as possible hate crimes, but that no hate crime charges had been filed against Tarrio.
Tarrio did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the allegations, and it was not immediately clear if Tarrio had an attorney who could comment on his behalf.
