- A Seattle
Proud Boys leader was arrested Wednesday in connection to his role in theCapitol siege . - Ethan Nordean, aka Rufio Panman, is charged with interfering with an official proceeding.
- The FBI says Nordean had planned for conflict before he arrived at the
Capitol on January 6.
The FBI has arrested a Proud Boys leader from Seattle in connection to his alleged role in the Capitol siege, according to the Department of Justice.
Ethan Nordean, who also goes by Rufio Panman, has been charged with interfering with an official proceeding, aiding and abetting, knowingly entering a restricted building, and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
Nordean is the self-proclaimed "Sergeant at Arms" of the Seattle chapter of the largely right-wing, all-male, extremist group, the department said in a press release.
"My son, Ethan, was arrested on February 3rd for his involvement in the Capitol siege," Mike Nordean wrote in a statement posted on his company website. "We have tried for a long while to get our son off the path which led to his arrest today - to no avail. Ethan will be held accountable for his actions."
The DOJ said Nordean was observed marching at the head of the Proud Boys group on January 6 and then entered the Capitol after a crowd - including members of the Proud Boys - forced their way into the building.
Nordean started preparing for conflict at the Capitol before he arrived in DC, according to the DOJ.
As early as December 27, he posted a message on social media asking for donations to buy "protective gear" and "communication equipment," according to prosecutors.
Authorities also cited a video he posted on social media a week earlier, which he captioned, "Let them remember the day they decided to make war with us."
In a different video posted around the same time, he and another Proud Boy said the group was going to "bring back that original spirit of 1776 of what really established the character of what America is," the DOJ said.
Two days after the insurrection, Nordean posted a photo of a Capitol Police officer administering pepper spray. It was captioned, "if you feel bad for the police, you are part of the problem," the DOJ said.
Nearly 60 police officers were injured in the insurrection, and Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick was killed.
Nordean was scheduled to be arraigned in federal court on Wednesday night, the same day Canada officially declared Proud Boys a terrorist organization.
The United States doesn't designate domestic terrorist groups and has no legal pathway to do so.
Several Proud Boys members have already been charged in connection to the Capitol siege. One of them, who led the storming of the Capitol, had manuals for homemade guns, bombs, and poisons on his computer, prosecutors say.