WASHINGTON — A man who carried a tiki torch during the racist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 has now been charged in connection with the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol.
Tyler Bradley Dykes, a former Marine who served several months in prison after a state grand jury accused him in connection with the racist event in Charlottesville where far-right extremists chanted “They will not replace us” as well as the Nazi slogan “Blood and Soil”. In Virginia, burning objects with the intent to intimidate is a crime.
An FBI affidavit says that detectives online referred to Dykes as #graygoose, and he was wearing “a gray puffer jacket, a textured gray gaitor, and a tan Adidas baseball cap with a black stripe running through the adjustable band.” An FBI informant said in late 2021 that Dykes said he walked into the Capitol while other rioters were beating officers, and that he was still in the military at the time. Then a confidential human source provided open source information supporting the identification.
The video, the feds said, showed Dykes “stole a police riot shield and raised it over his head to establish sole possession of the item.”
Dykes is facing a variety of misdemeanors and felonies, including obstructing, impeding or interfering with officers performing their duties. A judge ordered her temporary detention and place a detention hearing for Wednesday.
