US election: Proud Boys leader arrested in Washington
The leader of the far-right group was charged in relation to a clash with Black Lives Matter protesters.
The leader of the far-right Proud Boys was arrested on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., and charged in connection with unrest that followed pro-Trump protests in the nation’s capital last month.
Metropolitan Police arrested Enrique Tarrio, 36 years old, and charged him with destruction of property, a police spokesman said. Police also charged him with possession of what they said were two “high-capacity firearm magazines.”
Mr. Tarrio didn’t immediately return a phone call seeking comment. A social-media account for the Proud Boys on Monday night said the group had started a legal-defense fund for him.
Mr. Tarrio told the Washington Post in December he participated in burning a Black Lives Matter banner that had been ripped from a historic Black church during unrest that followed pro-Trump protests in the capital earlier in the day.
He told the Post he would plead guilty to destruction of property, pay the church the cost of the banner and accept arrest if authorities filed charges.
The night of the burning, brawls broke out between some demonstrators and counterprotesters. Several people, including eight police officers, were hurt, authorities said at the time.
Mr. Tarrio’s arrest came the same day civil-rights groups filed a lawsuit against Mr. Tarrio and Proud Boys International LLC on behalf of the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church.
“I love a good fight,” Mr. Tarrio said on a social-media post about the lawsuit earlier on Monday. He included an expletive to describe one of the representatives who filed the complaint.
The Proud Boys are a far-right group that describes itself as a men’s organization for “Western chauvinists” and has often fought with left-wing activists. At pro-Trump rallies in the capital in recent months, Mr. Tarrio led his group in chants of “F — antifa!” referring to the far-left movement, at the start of the day’s events.
Mr. Tarrio’s group gained notoriety in recent months after President Trump told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” in the first presidential debate.
Emails sent to Democratic voters in several battleground states were intended to appear as though they were written by the group. U.S. officials later said Iran was responsible.
Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have banned the Proud Boys, and Proud Boys members have generally moved to social-media platforms such as Parler and Telegram, which are popular with conservative and far-right groups.
Mr. Tarrio has said the recent publicity boosted the group’s membership. “I’ve almost doubled the size of my chapter within the past couple of weeks,” Mr. Tarrio told The Wall Street Journal in November, referring to the group’s South Florida unit, which he said he oversaw.
On the evening of the November presidential election, speaking by phone from a favorite Washington bar, Mr. Tarrio said he expected President Trump to win again.
He added that he feared a President Biden, who “will try to put me in chains.”
— Aruna Viswanatha contributed to this article.
Dow Jones Newswires
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