Federal authorities have arrested a north-central Missouri man on felony charges that he took a firearm onto the Capitol grounds during the Jan. 6 riot.
Jerod Thomas Bargar, of Centralia, Missouri, was arrested in Osage Beach on Wednesday, according to court documents. He faces felony offenses of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon and unlawful possession of a firearm on Capitol grounds or buildings. He also is charged with related misdemeanors.
The firearm was a 9mm semi-automatic pistol “held in a distinctive holster that displayed an image of the American flag and had the words ‘We The People’ written on it,” the charging document said.
Bargar, 36, is the 23rd Missouri resident to be charged in connection with the Capitol riot.
According to the court document, on Jan. 6, 2021, protesters on the west side of the Capitol building broke through a line of law enforcement officers around 2:27 p.m. A few minutes later, a Metropolitan Police lieutenant stationed in the area was alerted by a fellow officer about a firearm that had emerged from the crowd and was lying on the ground. The fellow officer dragged the firearm out of the crowd with his right foot.
The firearm contained one 9mm cartridge stamped “WIN 9mm LUGER” in the chamber and approximately 15 9mm cartridges in the magazine, the document said, with a total capacity of more than 10 rounds.
After the riot, the document said, the FBI received an anonymous tip that Jerod Bargar and his friend had posted photos on Facebook saying they were 10 feet away from the woman who was shot inside the Capitol.
FBI agents interviewed Bargar at his home on Jan. 18, 2021, the document said. He told agents that he and his friend traveled to Washington, D.C., by car on Jan. 5, 2021, to attend a political rally. After the rally, he said, the two walked to the Capitol building where they witnessed “chaos.”
“Bargar stated that he did not enter the Capitol building or participate in illegal activity because he knew where the ‘line’ was” and that it “was obvious officers were trying to keep protesters out,” the document said.
The FBI did not know at the time of the interview that the firearm belonged to Bargar, and Bargar didn’t mention it, according to the document. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives conducted a search based on the serial number, and the results gave the owner’s name as someone with the initials “D.F.”
FBI agents interviewed “D.F.” at his home in Missouri on June 14, 2021, the document said. The man told agents he hadn’t owned the firearm for several years and couldn’t remember whether he’d sold it or pawned it. He gave them the name of a Jefferson City pawn shop. Agents went to the shop two days later and were told that “D.F.” had pawned the firearm in November 2011 and that it was purchased by “R.N.” that same month.
On July 13, 2021, the document said, FBI agents interviewed “R.N.” at his Missouri home. He said he’d given the firearm to his stepson, Jerod Bargar, about a year-and-a-half earlier.
Agents then interviewed Bargar again, this time at his friend’s home in Centralia, the document said. Bargar told agents that he and his friend were at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and were in a group of protesters outside the building when police began to spray tear gas and deploy other munitions into the crowd. He said a woman was knocked to the ground, and he and his friend helped her up. Soon after that, he said, he realized he had lost his firearm.
When FBI agents showed him a photo of the firearm found on the Capitol grounds, the document said, Bargar acknowledged he was the owner.
“Bargar stated that he wore the firearm in an inside-the-waistband patriot motif holster,” the document said. “Bargar stated that he is always armed and wanted to be armed when he went to the ‘belly of the beast’ for his own ‘self-protection.’”
Checks run on the firearm revealed that it was not registered in the District of Columbia and that Bargar was not licensed to carry a firearm in the District of Columbia as required by law, the document said.
Bargar told agents that he did not know at the time he traveled to Washington, D.C., that it was illegal to possess a handgun there or on federal property.
Bargar made numerous Facebook posts on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, the document said, placing him in the Washington, D.C., area and on the National Mall. In one Jan. 6 post he is in a selfie photo amid a large crowd of protesters with the phrases “#FightForTrump #parciallypeacefulprotest #partofhistory.”
A later examination of Bargar’s Facebook account, the charging document said, showed he had made some alterations.
“He had changed the name on the account to Thomas Bargar, and the place of residence to New Jersey.”
