Floyd Ray Roseberry: North Carolina man makes 'bomb' threat at Capitol, rants against Joe Biden
A North Carolina man who shut down the US Capitol on Thursday, August 19, ranted about President Joe Biden on Facebook Livestream before posing with a device with his finger on the button.
Addressing POTUS, Floyd Ray Roseberry, 49, said: "We got a few options here Joe. You shoot me, two and a half blocks are going with me. And then you’re talking about a revolution." He further added, "I love this land....the south is coming for you...the Revolution is on." On Thursday, August 19, he told police that he had a bomb, law enforcement said. Capitol Police affirmed that there was an active bomb threat just after 10.30 am. Reports confirm that the police officers observed the man sitting in a black pickup truck outside the Library of Congress holding what appeared to be a detonator, US Capitol Police Chief J Thomas Manger said.
READ MORE
“My negotiators are hard at work trying to have a peaceful resolution to this incident,” Manger said. “We’re trying to get as much information as we can to find a way to peacefully resolve this.” Eyewitness Sydney Bobb, 22, said: "I was walking on that block because that’s where I go to class. He was shouting that he had a bomb. And then he threw money out the side of the truck." NBC reporter Jonathan Dienst stated the suspect is described as a "white male." The suspect is said to be communicating with cops via a dry erase board.
At about 9:15 am when the truck drove up the sidewalk outside the library, Roseberry told the responding officer that he had a bomb and was holding what the officer believed to be a detonator. The truck didn't have a license plate and when law enforcement noticed it in the morning, authorities reported a possible bomb threat over police radios.
The Madison building which has Congressional staffers told people to shelter in place, but later it was evacuated. The Supreme Court was also vacated, alongside the Cannon House Office and Jefferson buildings. People in the Cannon building were being told to "remain calm" and to relocate to the Longworth House Office Building "using the underground tunnels."
Roseberry surrendered to law enforcement after an hourslong standoffat 2pm. Police later searched the vehicle but couldn't find a bomb but did collect possible bomb-making materials. The standoff was resolved peacefully after roughly five hours of negotiations, ending when Roseberry crawled out of the truck and was taken into police custody. While the police did not reveal any details about a motive, and no charges were immediately announced. Investigators, speaking with members of Roseberry’s family and learned that his mother had recently died. “There were other issues he was dealing with,” Manger said, without providing specific details.
A video surfaced of Roseberry on Facebook Live inside the truck, which was stuffed with coins and boxes. He threatened explosions, expressed hostility toward Biden, profanely warned of a “revolution” and ranted about a series of grievances related to US positions on Afghanistan, health care and the military. At one point he claimed he had a “toolbox full of ammonium nitrate.” At another, he said police should ask their experts “what a 7-pound beg of gunpowder would do with 2.5-lbs. of Tannerite.”
In another part of the video he said: “Southern boys are here.” “You can take me out. But when you do, you know what’s going to happen Joe Biden? There’s going to be a chain reaction. And that chain reaction’s going to be on your hands.”
Videos posted to Facebook were taken down as they appeared to show Roseberry at a November 14 Washington rally attended by thousands of Trump supporters to protest what they claimed was a stolen election. In another video he was seen marching with a crowd carrying American flags and Trump flags and shouting “stop the steal.”