Jacob L. Zerkle aka AFO#335 aka #OleBurnSides was caught on police bodycam footage shoving, grappling, and punching multiple officers on January 6th...
Department of Justice
Jacob Zerkle, 50, of Bowie, Arizona, is charged in a criminal complaint filed in the District of Columbia with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers, civil disorder, engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds, and related offenses. He was arrested in Tucson and will make his initial appearance today in the District of Arizona.
According to court documents, on Jan. 6, starting at approximately 2 p.m., Zerkle physically engaged on the West Lawn with multiple officers from the Metropolitan Police Department, who were attempting to protect the Capitol grounds. He threw several punches at one officer, pushed at least one other officer, and grabbed the baton of another. At the time, officers were attempting to get to the Lower West Terrace, where they were to provide reinforcements to law enforcement there.
He almost took possession of an officer’s nightstick...
The Statement of Facts doesn’t specifically state as much, but I’d guess facial recognition was involved in linking bodycam footage to his passport and driver’s license photos...
AZ Central
The FBI had posted a photo of Zerkle on its website, asking for the public's help in identifying him. Zerkle's image, with his white beard growing in two tufts past his chin, was photograph No. 335 on the site.
According to the complaint, Zerkle was further identified through surveillance videos, including cameras worn on the uniforms of officers from the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Arizona. The complaint said he was recognizable in the various videos, in part, because of his grey beard styled into “mutton chops.”
The body-worn camera video, frames of which are included in the complaint, shows Zerkle pushing or shoving three officers. The complaint said he also grabbed one officer’s baton.
An FBI agent, according to the complaint, found Zerkle’s passport photo and Arizona driver’s license and determined that it was the same man seen in the officers’ videos. He interviewed Zerkle in October outside his home in Bowie, a community off of Interstate 10 in southeast Arizona, near the border with New Mexico.
He says he “probably did something dumb...” Ain’t no probably about it except that it probably happens often.
Tucson Sentinel
During the riot, clips from body-worn cameras worn by three police officers with Metropolitan Police Department show Zerkle in the fray. As the FBI agent who sought his arrested noted, Zerkle had "distinctive gray facial hair fashioned into 'mutton chops'" and was wearing a worn black leather jacket, gloves, and beige cargo pants.
(snip)
On October 28, 2021, the agent interviewed Zerkle at his home in Bowie, a small hamlet on Interstate 10 east of Willcox, and Zerkle told the agent that he went to Washington D.C. on Jan. 2 with a family member, to "protest election integrity," and that he did not attend Trump's speech, because "he went to the Capitol to protest, not to listen to speeches."
Zerkle admitted that he "pushed into some police officers and that he probably did something dumb" during the riot on January 6, and told the FBI agent that he was "shoved into the police and was trying to protect himself, but did not intend to assault a police officer," according to court records.
The FBI continues to seek the public’s assistance in identifying individuals who participated in unlawful conduct during the Capitol Insurrection. New images are added frequently...
If you have information about individuals who participated in the largest assault on police officers in U.S. history at the Capitol Riot on January 6th, call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324) or leave a tip online at the FBI’s website.
If you just can’t get enough information about the terrorists who tried to usurp our democracy, then these links are for you…
Department of Justice Capitol Breach Cases
FBI US Capitol Violence Most Wanted
Insider Searchable Table
George Washington University Spreadsheet — Updated Daily
NPR — Updated Database
seditiontracker.com
ProPublica Capitol Riot videos lifted from Parler
KUMU — Capitol Riot Insurrectionist Networks
Just Security — January 6th Clearinghouse
The Trace — Capitol Riot Gun Arrests
USA Today January 6 Capitol Riot Arrests
Sedition Hunters - Sedition Insiders Photo Gallery
Politico January 6 Insurrection Sentencing Tracker