THE wife of the suspect who shut down the US Capitol on Thursday said he was upset at the results of the 2020 election before his threat to “blow up two blocks.”
Floyd Ray Roseberry, 49, is due to appear in a District Court in Columbia on Friday after police identified him as the man who claimed to have a bomb in a Facebook Live outside the Library of Congress.
His wife – who has not been named – told NBC that her husband had left North Carolina on Wednesday, telling her he was going fishing.
She said Roseberry had voted for the “first time in his life” for Donald Trump and was “upset of the result of the election.”
Roseberry was struggling with his mental health before the hours long stand off on Thursday, she added.
His son Christopher told CNN: “I tried to tell him … ‘Who cares what goes on up there in DC? Worry about what you’ve got down here.’
“I tried to tell him that and he’s like, ‘No, I’m sticking up for my country. We need to get the country back to the way it was’.”
The standoff was resolved peacefully after roughly five hours of negotiations when the suspect crawled out of the truck and was taken into police custody.
Roseberry’s ex wife Crystal said she had never known him to have explosives, but he was an avid collector of firearms.
His pastor Bishop Brady Jackson said: “That’s not Ray. He’s a good guy. I don’t know what happened to him.”
Neighbor Randy Evans told WSOC he “had no idea anything like that is going on.”
Police were called to the Capitol on Thursday morning to reports of a bomb threat.
As police continued negotiations, video surfaced of Roseberry on Facebook Live inside his truck, which was stuffed with coins and boxes.
He threatened explosions, expressed hostility toward Joe Biden, warned of a “revolution” and laid bare a series of grievances related to U.S. positions on Afghanistan, health care and the military.
Roseberry said in the clips: “It’s time to take a stand. I’m an American Patriot. I’m here to take a stand.
“We got a few options here Joe. You shoot me, this two and a half blocks is going with it. You’re talking about a revolution? The revolution is on. It’s here. It’s today.”
Law enforcement said they did not find a bomb after searching his truck but did collect possible bomb-making materials.
Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said Roseberry’s mom had recently died, adding: “There were other issues he was dealing with.”
Videos posted to Facebook before the page was taken down appear to show Roseberry at a November 14 Washington rally attended by thousands of Trump supporters to protest what they claimed was a stolen election.
One video appears to be filmed by Roseberry as he’s marching with a crowd of hundreds of people carrying American flags and Trump flags and shouting “stop the steal.”
Four days before the threat, Roseberry posted on Facebook: “It’s almost time…take a extra pair of civilians clothes for our heroes… who can carry arms in… BIDEN YOUR FIRED…NO ISN’T A OPTION…FLEE OUR LAND.”
The standoff on Thursday brought the area surrounding the Capitol to a virtual standstill as police emptied buildings and cordoned off streets as a precaution.
The nation’s capital has been tense since the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, when thousands of supporters of then-President Trump stormed the building as Congress was gathered to certify the results of the presidential election.
A day before the riot at the Capitol, pipe bombs were left at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee in Washington.
