Who is Jacob Fracker? National Guardsman becomes 1st serving military person to be charged over Capitol riots
Two police officers charged for their respective roles in the January 6 riot at the US Capitol reportedly have military backgrounds. According to Military.com, one of the officers is still serving as a corporal in the National Guard. Thomas Robertson, an army vet, and Jacob Fracker, a Virginia National Guard infantryman and former marine, were arrested in Virginia on Wednesday. Fracker became the first person currently serving in the U.S. military to have been charged after the siege of the Capitol last week.
According to Military.com, Fracker and Robertson are both members of the Rocky Mount Police Department. According to their department, they have been placed on administrative leave after each was charged with one count of knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and one count of violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
More information about Fracker's career or unit would be disclosed following an investigation, the Virginia National Guard said. Spokesman AA "Cotton" Puryear noted that Fracker was not among the National Guard members who were dispatched to DC to provide security in the lead up to president-elect Joe Biden's inauguration. According to a 2011 report from the Franklin News-Post, Robertson served four years with the Army in the 1990s and later deployed to Iraq as part of a Virginia Beach Army Reserve unit. He reportedly sustained life-threatening wounds from a mortar blast while deployed, and told the Franklin News-Post it "should have killed me."
According to the Justice Department, Fracker and Robertson were photographed in the Capitol "making an obscene statement in front of a statue of John Stark." Stark was a celebrated American military officer who fought in multiple revolutionary wars.
According to a statement of facts posted by the DOJ on Wednesday, Fracker and Robertson were off duty from their jobs with the Rocky Mount Police Department at the time they were photographed. The DOJ's statement noted how the corporal wrote in a now-deleted Facebook post that he could protest for what he believed in, adding, "After all, I fought for your right to do it." Fracker also wrote, "Lol to anyone who's possibly concerned about the picture of me going around... Sorry I hate freedom?...Not like I did anything illegal."
Meanwhile, DOJ documents quote Robertson as saying: "CNN and the Left are just mad because we actually attacked the government who is the problem and not some random small business ... The right IN ONE DAY took the f***** U.S. Capitol. Keep poking us."
Robertson also asserted online that he was "proud" of the controversial photo because he was "willing to put skin in the game."
Fracker served as a Marine infantry rifleman from 2010 to 2014 before joining the Virginia National Guard. According to Military.com, he deployed twice to Afghanistan and retired as a corporal. Fracker's final assignment was with the North Carolina-based 1st Battalion, 8th Marines. During his time in the Corps, he earned a Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal as well as a Combat Action Ribbon.
