Capitol bomb threat suspect charged with threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction

WASHINGTON — Authorities have charged Floyd Ray Roseberry, the man accused of driving onto a sidewalk outside the Library of Congress and claiming to have a bomb on Thursday, with threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to use an explosive device, according to court records unsealed Friday.

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Roseberry, 49, sparked an hours-long standoff with U.S. Capitol Police that prompted the evacuation of several nearby buildings after he claimed to have a bomb. Police said he also held what appeared to be a detonator in his hand.

Congress was not in session during the incident.

Roseberry communicated with responding authorities using a whiteboard which he wrote messages on and shared through his driver’s side window, according to court records and police. Eventually, around 2:25 p.m., the North Carolina man got out of the truck and surrendered to authorities.

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In a hearing Friday before Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui, Roseberry said he could not entirely understand the proceedings because he had been denied his medication while he was in custody, The Associated Press reported. He told the judge he had not received his blood pressure or his “mind” medications.

Roseberry also said he completed school until the eighth grade and that he later earned a GED diploma, according to the AP.

Faruqui ordered that Roseberry undergo a competency hearing and that he be held without bond, court records show. He also said that he would delay making any “substantive decisions” in the case until after Roseberry was able to access his medication, The Washington Post reported.

A government official in Cleveland County, North Carolina, contacted the FBI after recognizing Roseberry from a report made one day earlier, court records show. A relative of Roseberry’s told authorities they were concerned because he had “recently expressed anti-government views and an intent to travel to Virginia or Washington, D.C. to conduct acts of violence.”

“(The witness) also reported that (Roseberry) had stated that he ‘ordered a trench coat to protect him from Taser and pepper ball guns and he would just tip his cowboy hat at the police,’” FBI special agent Brandon Camiliere wrote in an affidavit filed in court.

Authorities confirmed that Roseberry livestreamed a video on Facebook as he waited for police to arrive. He asked people nearby to call authorities and said he had already called 911 to “tell them to clear the Capitol.” In the video, he claimed that he had a bomb that was set to detonate if the truck’s windows shattered. At one point, he held up an old metal can that appeared to have been made into an explosive device.

“I’m telling you, my windows pop, this bomb is gonna go,” he said, according to the affidavit. “The (expletive) revolution starts today Joe Biden.”

Officials found no bomb in the truck, according to the Post.

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