A Texas man who told a Bumble match he participated in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol was arrested Friday after his would-be date alerted the FBI, according to court documents.
Andrew Quentin Taake, 32, is accused of pepper-spraying and assaulting police officers, federal authorities said. He's charged with obstruction of an official proceeding, felony assaulting police, obstruction of law enforcement, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, demonstrating in a Capitol building and engaging in physical violence on restricted grounds.
He made his initial court appearance Friday in the Southern District of Texas.
The FBI received a tip in January about Taake's participation in the riot after a witness told authorities they had messaged Taake on the dating app Bumble while he was in Washington, D.C., according to charging documents.
In a screengrab of the conversation included in the court document, the unnamed match asked Taake if he was "near all the action."
Taake told his match he was in the Capitol for about 30 minutes and was pepper-sprayed by law enforcement while "peacefully standing there." He also sent the person a photograph of himself apparently after he was pepper-sprayed, the documents show.
“About 30 minutes after being sprayed,” he wrote underneath a selfie. “Safe to say, I was the very first person to be sprayed that day … all while just standing there.”
After receiving the tip, authorities reviewed flight records that showed Taake took flight from Houston to Washington, D.C., a day before the riot and flew back days after. The FBI said it also found "publicly posted videos and photographs" showing Taake at the Capitol.
"Several of these images show Taake using what appears to be a metal whip and pepper spray to attack law enforcement officers," the charging document stated.
Body-worn camera provided by the Metropolitan Police Department showed Taake pepper-spraying officers who were blocking rioters and appearing to hit another group of officers with the whip, according to the charging document. Other videos captured Taake walking inside the building with the whip in his hand.
After the FBI gathered images of Taake, they showed them to a FedEx driver who had delivered a package at Taake's home. The driver was able to identify the man in the photos as Taake, the documents stated.
Attorney information for Taake was not immediately available. A phone call to a number listed for him was not returned.
This is the second time a riot suspect was charged after their Bumble match alerted authorities. In April, Robert Chapman, of Carmel, New York, was arrested and charged after boasting to his match about storming the Capitol.
In one message, Chapman wrote that he "did storm the Capitol and made it all the way to Statuary Hall."
The person responded, "We are not a match."
More than 535 people in nearly all 50 states have been arrested in connection with the riot, according to the Department of Justice. Over 165 people have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.
