The FBI arrested a man Tuesday who participated in the Capitol riot while he was out on bail for attempted first-degree murder.
Matthew Jason Beddingfield of North Carolina traveled to Washington, D.C. with his father to join the January 6, 2021, rally that ended in the storming of the Capitol, NBC News reported. He was on bail for allegedly shooting a 17-year-old in the head in a Walmart parking lot in 2019 when Beddingfield was 19 years old.
Now, court records say he is also facing a slew of felony charges related to the riot, including assaulting officers, impeding officers during a civil disorder, and carrying a deadly or dangerous weapon on restricted Capitol grounds. He has also been charged with several misdemeanors.
Online investigators first identified Beddingfield in March 2021 by using PimEyes, a facial recognition website, to match video from the riot to his mugshot, HuffPost reported. The video showed a man who appeared to be Beddingfield holding an American flag and fighting with police.
Facebook posts from Beddingfield’s father, Jason Beddingfield, also helped identify him. The father and son had attended another pro-Trump rally in Washington, D.C., in November 2020, and photos the elder Beddingfield posted from the event showed his son wearing the same Nike sneakers and carrying the same flag pole as he did during the January 6 assault, according to NBC News.
Shortly after the 2019 shooting, Jason Beddingfield told Raleigh and Durham news station WNCN-TV his son was being robbed on the night in question and shot the 17-year-old in self-defense.
Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images
“[W]e’re trying to do the best we can and I’m sorry that somebody got shot, but also this would not have happened if he had been robbed,” he said.
Matthew Beddingfield turned himself in to the police the next day. After his bond was lowered from $1 million to $100,000, he was released. Since then, he has pleaded guilty to a lesser charge. He was on probation when he was arrested on Tuesday.
Beddingfield is set to appear in federal court in the Eastern District of North Carolina at an undisclosed date.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
