A retired Air Force officer who was part of the mob that stormed the US Capitol on Jan. 6 and was photographed holding zip-tie handcuffs on the Senate floor planned to capture lawmakers, a federal prosecutor said. “He means to take hostages. He means to kidnap, restrain, perhaps try, perhaps execute members of the US government,” Assistant US Attorney Jay Weimer said in a Texas court Thursday as he argued that retired Lt. Col. Larry Rendall Brock Jr. should be kept in custody, the AP reports. Weimer offered no specifics on allegations that Brock, who was arrested on Jan. 10, intended to take hostages but said that Brock’s military experience and training “make him all the more dangerous.” Despite Weimer’s request that Brock be detained, Magistrate Judge Jeffrey L. Cureton released the 53-year-old veteran on home confinement, per NBC-DFW.
“I need to put you on a very short rope," the judge said to Brock. “These are strange times for our country and the concerns raised by the government do not fall on deaf ears.” Brock, who was wearing military-style gear during the Capitol invasion, had previously told the New Yorker that he had found the zip-tie handcuffs on the ground and picked them up: “My thought process there was I would pick them up and give them to an officer when I see one.” Brock has so-far been charged with misdemeanors, but Weimer said more charges are likely. Of the allegations made against his client, Brock’s attorney said, “It’s all talk. It’s all speculation and conjecture.” Many online comments and social media posts by Brock, however, include references to “civil war,” per WFAA, and he was fired from a job in 2017 because of “threatening and discriminatory speech.” (More insurrection stories.)
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