WASHINGTON — The FBI has arrested a Donald Trump supporter allegedly to have stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, while wearing the head of a panda costume.
Jesse James Rumson was arrested Monday in Florida, according to court records, and charged with multiple offenses, including assaulting, resisting or impeding an officer and engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds.
Video from Jan. 6 shows that a man wearing a panda head entered the Capitol through an emergency fire escape seconds after it was broken open by members of the mob and quickly made his way toward police officers who were trying to keep the rioters back.
Online sleuths who have helped identify hundreds of Capitol rioters dubbed the person “Sedition Panda” and had surfaced photos of him.
The FBI identified Rumson as the man in the panda head because he wore it on and off during the storming of the Capitol and he was caught on video and in photos with his face in full view, an FBI special agent said in an affidavit supporting his arrest.
Rumson is alleged to have been inside the building for less than 15 minutes, according to the affidavit. After he left the building, he was seen on video encouraging rioters to breach another door, yelling, “Get a ram!” He later assaulted a police officer, grabbing the officer’s face shield, the FBI affidavit alleges.
At least 985 people have been arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 riot, according to information released this month by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Washington, D.C.
