Auburn man charged for alleged role in Capitol riot
Published 2:48 pm Tuesday, January 12, 2021
Records: Alabama man on bond arrested after Capitol riot
An Alabama man out on bond on drug charges has been taken into custody after being accused of participating in last week’s riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Court records show that a judge on Monday revoked the bond for 23-year-old William Watson after prosecutors said he was identified in photographs and video of the riot.
“Video surveillance from inside the Capital Building recorded images of protestors inside the building, including images of the Defendant dressed in a yellow sweatshirt standing next to a man with horned hat. The Defendant was identified by local authorities,” prosecutors wrote in a motion.
The FBI released the image of the bearded man in the yellow sweatshirt among photos of rioters they were hoping to identify.
WRBL reported that Watson was arrested Monday afternoon in Auburn.
Authorities noted that they were also able to identify Watson by the distinctive tattoos on his hand, and that Watson himself appeared to describe his participation in a social media post.
“They wanna call me antifa because I have a video game tattoo on my hand and I was pleading for peaceful discourse. Let em say what they will. The fake news won’t win against thousands of patriots who recorded today,” read a social media post that prosecutors attributed to Watson.