Photo: A video still that authorities say shows Arkansas resident Peter Stager attacking a police officer during a riot at the U.S. Capitol. Authorities placed a red box around Stager to single him out in the image. (Photo: FBI)
LITTLE ROCK – A man who beat a police officer with a flagpole while storming the U.S. Capitol last week has been identified as an Arkansas resident, authorities announced Thursday.
KATV reports the FBI said in a court affidavit Peter Francis Stager was identified after videos of the attack were posted on Twitter. One of the videos shows him repeatedly striking a Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police officer with a pole affixed to the U.S. flag. The officer had fallen on the ground while being attacked by a violent mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters.
According to the affidavit, some of the rioters “were throwing and swinging various objects” at police when they grabbed the officer, identified only as “B.M.” and pulled him down the stairs of the Capitol. They then forced the officer into a prone position on the ground and began hitting him in his head and body.
Stager says in one of the videos: “Everybody in there is a treasonous traitor. Death is the only remedy for what’s in that building.”
Five people died in the riot, including a Capitol Police officer.
Public records show that Stager lives in Conway. A person recognized him in the videos and alerted the FBI, according to the affidavit. A second person also identified the man as Stager. That person told authorities he spoke to Stager after the riot, and Stager told him he thought the person he was hitting was part of the antifa movement, even though the officer clearly had “Metropolitan Police” on his clothing.
The FBI found records from the Arkansas Department of Motor Vehicles and Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration that helped identify Stager, the affidavit says.
Stager faces a charge of obstructing, impeding, or interfering with a law enforcement officer lawfully engaged in the performance of his duties during the commission of a civil disorder.
He’s at least the second Arkansas resident to face criminal charges in the riot. Richard Barnett, 60, of Gravette, was arrested after he broke into Nancy Pelosi’s office and put his his feet on a desk.
Barnett made his first court appearance Wednesday. He has a detention hearing set for Friday.
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