A Maine man has been charged in connection with the assault on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump who were seeking to overturn the election by disrupting Congress’ certification of the election results last month.

Kyle Fitzsimons, 37, of Lebanon was arrested Thursday without incident by special agents and police officers assigned to the FBI Boston Division in Maine, along with state and local law enforcement officers, according to a statement by the FBI. Spokeswoman Kristen Setera said that Fitzsimons was arrested in Lebanon. Setera said the FBI also arrested Brian P. McCreary, 33, of North Adams, Massachusetts, on Thursday, in connection with his role in the Capitol riot.

The FBI released this photograph of Kyle Fitzsimons taken by a surveillance camera during the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6 as part of court documents charging him with assaulting a federal police officer among other charges.  Federal court documents

Fitzsimons is charged with assault on a federal police officer, knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building without lawful authority, violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, and attempting to obstruct law enforcement during a civil disorder, according to documents filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Portland.

Five people died as a result of the insurrection, including Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick. He was killed while defending the Capitol from the mob of white supremacists, far right extremists and Trump supporters.

Fitzsimmons is charged in the District of Columbia, where he will be prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Craig M. Wolff, assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Maine, said in an email Thursday night. Under the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, anyone arrested in another district must first appear in the district of arrest.

Wolff said that Fitzsimons will make his initial court appearance in Portland on Friday to be informed of his rights and the charges against him. He was being held in the Cumberland County Jail on Thursday night. District of Columbia U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui issued an arrest warrant for Fitzsimons on Monday.

Court documents show that a conviction could lead to significant prison time for Fitzsimons. Assaulting a police officer is a Class D felony. He could face up to eight years in prison and be required to pay a fine of up to $250,000 if convicted. Knowingly entering a restricted building is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine. Attempting to obstruct law enforcement during a civil disorder event is a Class D felony and can carry a prison term of up to five years and up to a $250,000 fine.

An affidavit filed by Benjamin Spinale, a special agent with the FBI’s Washington Field Office, details Fitzsimons’ alleged role in the riot on the Capitol grounds during the afternoon of Jan. 6.

Spinale alleges that between 3:45 p.m. and 4:30 p.m., Fitzsimons was observed “pushing and grabbing against officers, who were holding a police line in an arched entranceway on the lower west terrace of the Capitol Building.” According to Spinale, Fitzsimons moved to the front of the group of rioters where he continued to grab and push officers.

After he was hit by officers’ batons, Fitzsimons lowered his shoulder and charged at the line of police officers, Spinale said. One of the officers seen in surveillance footage is wearing a helmet with the letters MPDC (Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia) printed on the back. Surveillance footage, contained in court documents, shows Fitzsimons engaging with officers with what appears to be a fur pelt hanging around his neck. After scuffling with officers, Fitzsimons retreated into the crowd.

In the affidavit, Spinale states that a concerned citizen spotted an image of Fitzsimons on a law enforcement poster. The person told the FBI that they had interacted with Fitzsimons on a number of occasions and that Fitzsimons had been interviewed by the Rochester Voice newspaper in New Hampshire. Spinale references the Rochester Voice article, which was published Jan. 11. In that interview, Fitzsimons said he traveled to the “Stop the Steal” protest in Washington because if the republic were going to die that day, “I wanted to be there to witness it.” Rochester is across the Maine-New Hampshire border from Lebanon.

Fitzsimons told the reporter he attended Trump’s rally at the Ellipse on Jan. 6. The Rochester Voice reported that after Trump told supporters at the Ellipse that they needed to walk to the Capitol “to give our Republicans, the weak ones … the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country,” Fitzsimons went to his car at a local parking garage and changed out of his regular clothes to his butcher whites. He also carried an unstrung bow with him, which was meant to signify his peaceful intent.

Fitzsimons told the reporter that when he arrived at the Capitol building he got caught up in what he described as a “scrum” of men and women, who pushed him to the front of the line where the mob was confronting police officers.

A police officer clubbed him over the head, causing him to bleed profusely. He said several “good Samaritans” helped him down the Capitol steps, where he was taken to an ambulance. Fitzsimons said that it took six stitches to close the gash on his head. He told the Rochester Voice that he believed the protest would be peaceful.

“The scrum was a barbarian horde, a crush, you couldn’t breathe,” Fitzsimons said. “It was such a push of men and women. If you had gone under foot, if you fought, you would have gone down and not come up.”

Spinale’s affidavit said an anonymous informant told him during the course of his investigation that Fitzsimons worked at the Hannaford supermarket in York. Fitzsimons told the Rochester Voice that he worked as a butcher.

In the affidavit, Spinale quotes a second informant, who told him that Fitzsimons called into the Lebanon town meeting Jan. 7 and announced that he had gone to the Capitol the previous day. Fitzsimons told the town meeting, which Spinale said was recorded on YouTube, that he wore a costume to the protest that consisted of a white butcher’s jacket and an unstrung bow.

Fitzsimons is a gun rights activist. In April 2019, he testified in Augusta against the so-called Red Flag legislation that would allow courts to create an “extreme risk protection order” to temporarily take guns from individuals who pose an immediate and present danger to themselves or others. Fitzsimons was one of several gun owners who argued that the legislation would violate the Constitution.

Fitzsimons is the first Mainer to have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 riot.

Portland police also said that Fitzsimons is a person of interest in their investigation into a suspicious package that was left near the Portland Museum of Art on Jan. 23, News Center Maine reported. Lt. Robert Martin, a spokesman for the police department, told the TV station that Fitzsimons has not been charged.

“We have been working with the FBI and other agencies since the incident occurred. We have no charges at this time in connection to our incident,” Martin told News Center.

Police said someone left a package made of feathers surrounded by a box along with a spray-painted message. The strange delivery prompted police to cordon off Congress Street for more than three hours. The department’s hazardous device team determined the package was not an explosive device, but police described the contents of the package as concerning. The suspect also spray-painted the word “BALM” on the sidewalk near the museum.

Martin did not return a message seeking additional details about the case Thursday night.

The U.S. Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs has created a web page where the public can track the charging and arrest of defendants in connection with the U.S. Capitol breach. The page includes defendants’ names, charges and case status.

It can be found at justice.gov/usao-dc/capitol-breach-cases.