RALEIGH, N.C. — Federal authorities had help identifying the ponytailed man wearing a “Keep America Great” sweatshirt who popped up in numerous photographs inside the U.S. Capitol.
Grayson Sherrill’s family turned him in.
The Cherryville man becomes the latest North Carolinian accused of taking part in the violent storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6.
A newly unsealed complaint charges Sherrill with three felonies: knowingly entering and remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; knowingly engaging in disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted area; and violent and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
Sherrill made his initial appearance in federal court in Charlotte on Monday. He was ordered by U.S. Magistrate Judge David Keesler to report to U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., which is prosecuting the cases tied to the Capitol violence.
Five deaths have been linked to the efforts by supporters of former President Donald Trump to disrupt the certification of Trump’s electoral loss to Joe Biden. The riots left some 140 police officers injured and did millions of dollars in damages to one of the country’s most iconic government buildings.
When hundreds of Trump supporters stormed through police lines and broke through windows and doors and took over the Capitol, Sherrill appears to have been among them.
A series of photographs included in the federal complaint against him shows a dark-haired, ponytailed man wearing jeans, combat boots and a red Trump sweatshirt moving through the Capitol carrying either a rod or cane-like object.
At one point, the man poses next to a statue of President Dwight Eisenhower inside the Capitol Rotunda. In other photos, he can be seen among the throngs of intruders wandering around the building.
According to the complaint, two of Sherrill’s relatives ID’d him for the FBI.
He becomes at least the sixth North Carolinian charged in connection with the Capitol violence, including one former police officer.
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