John Carl and other rioters surrounded police officers near a set of stairs leading to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to a recent criminal complaint. When officers tried to move Carl back, he resisted and grabbed an officer’s baton, federal prosecutors said.
Carl breached the Capitol that afternoon and entered the office of Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), the complaint said. He told a friend that police officers prevented further entry into the building, prosecutors said, so he exited the Capitol and later returned to his North Carolina home.
A few years later, Carl became a police officer in Pinetops, N.C., about 50 miles east of Raleigh.
However, Carl was suspended from his job after his arrest Thursday for his alleged actions during the Jan. 6 insurrection, Pinetops’s outside attorney, J. Brian Pridgen, said in a statement to The Washington Post. Carl, 41, was charged with a felony count of civil disorder and misdemeanors of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; and parading, picketing and demonstrating in a Capitol building. If convicted of the felony, he could be sentenced to up to five years in prison.
Carl declined to comment on the allegations when reached by The Post, saying in a text message that “someday hopefully” he can share his side of the story. A public defender will represent him, according to court documents, but Carl said he hasn’t been assigned representation yet.
He isn’t the first person to work in law enforcement and be among the more than 1,488 people who have been charged in relation to the Jan. 6 riot. A former California police chief was sentenced to 11 years in prison in December on felony charges related to his involvement in the riot, and a former North Carolina police officer was sentenced to more than a year in prison in September for her role in breaching the Capitol.
The FBI investigated Carl after his friend reported himself to authorities for his involvement in the riot, according to the criminal complaint, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for D.C. His friend, whom the U.S. attorney’s office for D.C. declined to identify, told investigators on Jan. 25, 2021, that he had picked up Carl to drive him to D.C. earlier that month, prosecutors said.
After attending President Donald Trump’s rally near the National Mall on Jan. 6, 2021, Carl’s friend told investigators that he and Carl walked to the Capitol, where people were entering the building through windows they had broken, the complaint said.
In February 2021, the FBI spoke with Carl, who said there wasn’t much “swinging or throwing” where he was standing near the Capitol but that there were “guys putting their shoulder in” as police officers holding riot shields pushed back the crowd, according to the complaint. It’s unclear why Carl wasn’t arrested at the time.
Body-camera footage from the D.C. police later showed Carl, wearing a maroon and gray jacket and a mask, standing in front of police officers with other rioters on the west side of the Capitol, prosecutors said. The footage showed Carl raising his arms to push back against officers’ attempts to move him and grabbing an officer’s arm and baton.
Footage from the Capitol Police showed Carl and his friend entering the Capitol’s Senate wing entrance door about an hour later before Carl walked farther into the building, prosecutors said. Carl’s friend told investigators that he and Carl ultimately exited through the same door they had entered.
More than two years later — in November — Carl, who said he had previously worked in real estate, graduated from an eastern North Carolina community college’s basic law enforcement training, according to a news release from the college at the time. Later that month, Carl was introduced at a board of commissioners meeting in Pinetops as a “recently graduated Trainee/Cadet,” according to the meeting’s minutes.
The Pinetops Police Department and Pinetops Mayor Brenda Harrell directed requests for comment to Pridgen, who said in a statement that Carl was hired by the department June 5, 2023.
“At the time of his hiring and during his employment, the Town of Pinetops had no knowledge of Officer Carl’s possible involvement” in the riot, Pridgen said. “Based on the charges brought by the FBI, Officer Carl has been suspended pending an investigation.”
