‘I helped take the Hill.’ Dallas-Fort Worth man arrested on charges in Capitol riot
A Dallas-Fort Worth man who allegedly took part in the deadly storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and then boasted about it on his Facebook page was arrested this week by the FBI, according to court documents.
Dan Phipps, described as having an address within DFW, is facing one charge of violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds and one charge of knowingly entering a restricted building without lawful authority, impeding official functions, documents show. Violations of laws that protect restricted buildings or grounds can include fines and up to one year of imprisonment, according to the Congressional Research Service. A maximum sentence of 10 years can be authorized if the offense involved a deadly or dangerous weapon.
The insurrection at the Capitol, encouraged by former President Donald Trump and aimed at stopping the certification of President Joe Biden’s election win, resulted in the deaths of five people and became worldwide news. In the following weeks, videos from journalists and citizens inside the building have shown the full extent of the riot, with men carrying assault rifles through the halls of Congress and officers squeezed between angry masses.
Law enforcement agencies across the U.S. have seized on the trove of images to identify rioters. That effort has been underway in North Texas, where the FBI has a field office in Dallas.
The investigation into Phipps began with a Fort Worth police analyst tasked with poring through social media to identify local residents involved in the attack, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. She advised the FBI she had found a Facebook post from a man saying he had spots available on his bus going to D.C. for a protest on Jan. 6. Phipps expressed interest.
Authorities additionally saw that, two days after the insurrection, Phipps changed his profile picture to a photo of himself standing inside the Capitol with an American flag draped around his shoulder. He wrote on Facebook the next day that, “Everyone talks about being a patriot until it’s time to do patriot (expletive).”
“I went to DC. I helped take the Hill,” he wrote on Facebook, as shown in the criminal complaint. “I helped other patriots prevent antifa from damaging anything. I exercised my 1st amendment right to take grievances to our representatives. It was a (mostly peaceful) political protest.”
Claims that members of Antifa, short for Anti-Fascist, were behind the Capitol attack have been refuted by authorities including the FBI. There is no evidence to support these claims, the FBI has said.
Phipps was arrested on Tuesday in Corpus Christi, according to media reports.
He’s one of several North Texas residents who allegedly were part of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6 and didn’t immediately face consequences, only for law enforcement to catch up to them through photos or videos and file charges. At least seven other North Texans have been arrested.
A Facebook page that appears to belong to Phipps shows that he lives in Dallas, went to Garland High School and studied criminal justice/law at Dallas College. He also studied at the American Flyers Flight School, the page says, and the American Motorcycle Institution.
In one post from Jan. 18, Phipps writes that he “just got out of FascistBook jail” and “the FBI is NOT after me because I’m on video fighting with antifa and cooperating with law enforcement.”
The Fort Worth police analyst was able to use a search database to find information on Phipps, who appeared to be the same person from the Facebook page, according to the criminal complaint. An FBI agent additionally spoke to someone who lives in the neighborhood where Phipps was believed to reside and confirmed he was the person in the Facebook images.
This story was originally published January 27, 2021 at 11:42 AM.
