Edward Kelley (images via FBI court filing).
Police have arrested a Tennessee man who allegedly used a wooden plank to smash a window at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 before entering the building and then kicking a door open to let other rioters in.
Edward Kelley, 33, was outfitted in a gas mask, green tactical helmet, and backpack secured across his chest when he approached the Capitol building by way of scaffolding over the stairs of the West Front. Once there, investigators say, he and two other men got into an altercation with a Capitol Police officer.
According to the Statement of Offense, Kelley also “pushed and pulled on a metal barricade as he made his way to the outside of the Senate Wing Door.”
“He then used a piece of wood to breach the window adjacent to the Senate Wing Door,” the Statement of Offense said. “He was the fourth rioter to enter the building through the window.”
Prosecutors say that after entering the building through the broken window, Kelley turned around and kicked open one of the Senate Wing Doors.
Investigators say that Kelley was among the group of rioters who followed Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman up a set of stairs.
“Kelley can be seen talking directly to Officer Goodman,” the Statement of Offense says.
Goodman has been credited with leading the angry rioters away from the direction of the Senate Chamber.
Surveillance footage allegedly shows Kelley in several parts other of the Capitol building, including the Ohio Clock Corridor, the Crypt, and the Senate Gallery. At one point he changed out of his gas mask into a red, white, and blue medical mask and went inside the Capitol Rotunda.
He spent around 40 minutes inside the building.
Kelley is seen on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6 wearing a sweatshirt with the letters “TCAPP” on it, which stands for “The Church at Planned Parenthood,” an organization that opposes abortion rights and holds what it says are “services” outside Planned Parenthood locations nationwide.
“The Church at Planned Parenthood is NOT a protest,” the group’s website says. “It’s a worship service at the gates of Hell. The Church at Planned Parenthood is a gathering of Christians for the worship of God and the corporate prayer for repentance for this nation, repentance for the apathetic church and repentance of our blood guiltiness in this abortion holocaust.”
Its tactics include engaging in loud demonstrations outside Planned Parenthood facilities that are said to interfere with patient care and violate local laws against excessive noise outside healthcare facilities.
The organization has been linked to the Proud Boys, a right-wing extremist group that has posed as security for TCAPP gatherings.
Kelley appears to have been active with TCAPP in Maryville, Tennessee, since late December of 2020, when a video posted on Facebook.
Federal investigators confirmed Kelley’s identity and presence in Washington, D.C. by speaking with the person who traveled with him there. This person, identified only as Witness 1 in the Statement of Offense, told investigators that he drove Kelley to D.C. “after being asked to do so by their pastor.”
Kelley was scheduled to appear in federal court in Tennessee on Thursday afternoon.
You can read the Statement of Facts, below.
[Images via FBI court filing.]
