Novice baseball mascot charged with becoming a member of Capitol riot in purple face paint and Trump hat

A St. Louis Cardinals mega-fan often called “Rally Runner” was arrested Wednesday on prices that he joined a mob’s assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and used a stolen protect to assist different rioters assault law enforcement officials, court docket data present.

Daniel Donnelly Jr. was carrying purple paint on his face and a purple “Keep America Great” hat when he stormed the Capitol, the FBI stated in a court docket submitting.

Donnelly is understood in St. Louis for working across the Cardinals’ stadium throughout baseball video games whereas carrying purple garments and purple face paint. Donnelly apparently modified his authorized title to Rally Runner, in response to the FBI.

Tucker Carlson featured Donnelly on a December 2021 phase of his now-canceled Fox News present. Carlson confirmed a picture of Donnelly outdoors the Capitol as he promoted conspiracy theories that uncharged “agent provocateurs” had infiltrated the mob, HuffPost reported.

“Who is this person? Why hasn’t he been charged? That’s a very simple ask,” Carlson instructed his viewers.

Donnelly was scheduled to make his preliminary court docket look in Missouri on Wednesday. The FBI arrested him in St. Louis on prices together with a felony depend of interfering with police throughout a civil dysfunction.

Investigators questioned Donnelly at his St. Louis house lower than per week after the riot. He instructed them that he was on the Capitol on Jan. 6 and took one of many police shields that rioters have been passing across the crowd, the FBI stated.

Video captured Donnelly within the crowd of rioters who attacked police in a tunnel on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace. He and different rioters used shields to type a wall as they clashed with police, the FBI stated.

“Rioters continued to push forward as a group, with Donnelly in the lead. A video showed Donnelly at the front of the line using the shield to aid in the advancement of the (rioters) by pushing law enforcement officers back,” an FBI agent wrote.

Donnelly was nonetheless carrying face paint and his Trump hat when talked about his half within the Capitol assault in a Facebook video posted on Jan. 6.

“We pushed them all the way into the doors. It was working until more cops showed up. I’m right at the front of it and got through those doors into the Capitol, and that’s when reinforcements came,” he stated on the video.