WASHINGTON — Police in the nation’s capital on Monday arrested the leader of the Proud Boys, who is accused of burning a Black Lives Matter banner that was torn down from a historic Black church in downtown Washington last month.
Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, 36, was arrested by Metropolitan Police Department officers after he arrived in Washington ahead of protests planned by supporters of President Donald Trump to coincide with the congressional vote expected Wednesday to affirm Joe Biden’s election victory.
Tarrio was taken into custody after a warrant was issued for his arrest for destruction of property, police said. He was also facing a weapons charges after officers found him with two high-capacity firearm magazines when he was arrested.
A pro-Trump rally in December ended in violence as hundreds of Trump supporters, some wearing the signature black and yellow of the Proud Boys, sought out confrontations with a collective of activists and counterprotesters attempting to bar them from Black Lives Matter Plaza, an area near the White House. By nightfall, vandals tore down a Black Lives Matter banner and sign from two historic Black churches in downtown Washington and set the banner ablaze.
Tarrio told The Washington Post he had participated in the burning of the Black Lives Matter banner and said he would plead guilty to destruction of property and pay the church the cost of the banner.
Another video showed men removing a Black Lives Matter sign at the Metropolitan A.M.E. Church.
“We just want to see justice be done,” the Rev. Dr. Lanther Mills, senior pastor at Asbury, said in an interview Monday night.
The church community is “in some ways of course feeling some relief” following the arrest, Mills added. Even so, she said, “we still remain concerned” about the high number of expected protesters in the area.
Source: Oregon Live
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