FBI arrests man on Jan. 6 assault charges with help of online sleuths and matching moles

Ryan J. Reilly
Updated ·3 min read
451

WASHINGTON — The FBI arrested an alleged Jan. 6 participant in Maryland on Wednesday and charged him with assaults on law enforcement after it identified him with the help of online sleuths and by matching moles on his face to video from the 2021 Capitol attack.

Thomas Joseph “Tommy” Kelly Jr. faces charges of assaulting officers, assaulting officers with a deadly or dangerous weapon and civil disorder, along with several misdemeanors. The FBI said Kelly used a long pole to repeatedly strike officers inside the lower west tunnel leading into the Capitol, where some of the worst violence of the day took place.

Thomas Joseph Kelly Jr at the U.S. Capitol holding a pole (FBI's Baltimore Field Office)
Thomas Joseph Kelly Jr at the U.S. Capitol holding a pole (FBI's Baltimore Field Office)

Kelly, the FBI said, was listed as No. 189 on the FBI's Capitol Violence webpage, essentially its "most wanted" list for Jan. 6 suspects. Online "sedition hunters" who have aided the bureau with hundreds of Jan. 6 arrests referred to him as #Zionor because of the brand of snow goggles he was wearing during the attack.

Online sleuths have routinely used facial recognition to identify rioters, and the FBI said it was tipped off about publicly available photos of Kelly on a wedding and engagement photography website. It particularly focused on the “size and position of two moles” that helped confirm the identification, according to an FBI affidavit.

Split image: a close-up of two different images of Kelly using yellow arrows to indicate the matching size and position of moles visible (FBI's Baltimore Field Office)
Split image: a close-up of two different images of Kelly using yellow arrows to indicate the matching size and position of moles visible (FBI's Baltimore Field Office)

Kelly, the FBI said, was also with his wife on Jan. 6, 2021, which helped confirm the identification. To nail it down, the bureau even checked Kelly's wife's Amazon records, finding that she'd bought running shoes on Nov. 22, 2020, that matched the ones the FBI says she wore on Jan. 6, a few weeks later. The bureau also noted that she'd bought Zionor snow goggles in October 2020 that matched the ones Kelly wore, as well as a flag listed as "Trump Law & Order 2nd Amendment Guns Flag Trump Flag Make America Great Again" on Dec. 15, 2020.

Split image: Left, a closeup showing Kelly’s wife wearing a pair of what appear to be Brooks Women’s Caldera 4 running shoes and right, a screenshot of an Amazon listing for Brooks Women’s Caldera 4 running shoes. (FBI's Baltimore Field Office)
Split image: Left, a closeup showing Kelly’s wife wearing a pair of what appear to be Brooks Women’s Caldera 4 running shoes and right, a screenshot of an Amazon listing for Brooks Women’s Caldera 4 running shoes. (FBI's Baltimore Field Office)

The FBI said a video from outside the Capitol on Jan. 6 shows Kelly talking about the need to rush police officers when the officers re-formed a police line after the initial barriers were breached. "They initially were back there! We jumped the fence, and they ran back! They're scared! They're scared!" the FBI quotes Kelly saying in the video.

Video also showed Kelly celebrating when another rioter hits police with pepper spray, as well as a giant "TRUMP" sign to assault police.

Later, the FBI said, Kelly joined a mob pushing against police, made physical contact with another officer, flipped off officers as the mob chased them down and joined the rioters fighting law enforcement inside the lower west tunnel with a pole that "had a mottled wood-like finish, a metal endcap, and metal screw eyes protruding from the side."

Inside the tunnel, the FBI said, Kelly "jabbed and thrust the pole directly into the police line" and hit an officer in the head. The officer he hit ended up with a cracked helmet and was briefly knocked unconscious, the FBI said. "Even after he regained consciousness, Officer C.M. struggled to remain conscious," the FBI affidavit said. "Officer C.M. continued to experience symptoms from this blow to his head during the remainder of January 6, 2021, including symptoms such as vision loss and degraded consciousness."

Kelly then handed the pole to another rioter, who broke it while striking police officers, according to the FBI.

Since the attack on the Capitol nearly 3½ years ago, federal prosecutors have charged more than 1,425 rioters and secured more than 1,019 convictions against Jan. 6 defendants. Of the more than 884 defendants who have been sentenced, 541 have received periods of incarceration from a few days behind bars to 22 years in federal prison.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com