The man who brought parts of Washington, D.C. to a standstill for hours Thursday after claiming he had a bomb in his truck has been formally charged for his actions. Floyd Ray Roseberry, who hails from Grover, North Carolina, is now facing charges of “threatening to use explosives and a weapon of mass destruction,” according to the Washington Post.
Roseberry surrendered to authorities after an hours-long standoff in front of the Library of Congress after driving his truck onto the sidewalk outside the landmark. The incident, which led to most of Capitol Hill being evacuated, happened barely seven months after the Capitol was attacked by a mob of violent Donald Trump supporters.
Roseberry had been holed up in a black Chevy pickup truck since shortly after 9 a.m. Thursday. Law enforcement tried to negotiate with Roseberry, first using a whiteboard to exchange messages at a distance and then finally using a robot to deliver a phone over to Roseberry, who did not use it.
“Shortly after we had delivered the telephone, he got out of the vehicle and surrendered and the tactical units that were close by took him into custody without incident,” U.S. Capitol police chief Thomas Manger said.
Later on Thursday, the U.S. Capitol Police stated that “a bomb was not found in the vehicle, but possible bomb making materials were collected from the truck.”
The Post reported that court documents showed a relative of Roseberry had spoken to local law enforcement the day prior to the incident, saying Roseberry “had recently expressed anti-government views and an intent to travel to Virginia or Washington, D.C. to conduct acts of violence.”
Prior to his arrest, Roseberry had been livestreaming to Facebook for hours from his truck, making anti-government remarks directed at President Biden and seen on the self-filmed video holding what appeared to be an electrical switch connected to a canister in his lap.
During the livestream, the man was seen trying and failing repeatedly to get the attention of authorities and passersby, telling one person he had a bomb but apparently being ignored. The man said in the video he called 911 and reported his threat, adding that he did not want to hurt anyone in the vicinity. The Facebook profile has since been taken off-line, a company spokesperson tweeted.
The situation prompted the lockdown and evacuation of the Library of Congress’s Madison and Jefferson buildings, the Cannon House Office building in the Capitol complex, and the Supreme Court. WMATA, the city’s transit authority, announced that subway trains would bypass the nearby Capitol South metro station due to the ongoing incident.
