PINETOPS, N.C. (WITN) – An Eastern Carolina police officer is the latest person to be charged in the January 6th Capitol breach.

The FBI arrested Officer John Carl on Thursday. Carl joined the Pinetops Police Department last summer after graduating basic law enforcement training at Edgecombe Community College.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office says the 41-year-old Carl is charged with felony obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder and misdemeanor offenses of entering a restricted building, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, picketing and demonstrating in a Capitol building.

The feds say Carl went to D.C. to attend the former president’s rally on January 6th and afterwards he went to the west front of the U.S. Capitol.

At the time, Carl was not a police officer.

Pictures from the FBI show John Carl at the Capitol on the day of the January 6th attack. The third picture is from Carl’s 2023 swearing-in as a Pinetops police officer.

Prosecutors say Carl ignored police commands to move from the area and instead raised his arms “to push back against police and grabbed an officer’s arm and baton.”

A news release says the man then entered the Capitol building through the Senate Wing door and went into a U.S. senator’s office.

Pinetops’s attorney tells WITN that Carl has been suspended from duty pending an investigation.

“At the time of his hiring and during his employment, the Town of Pinetops had no knowledge of Officer Carl’s possible involvement in the January 6, 2021 Capital riot,” said Brian Pridgen in an email to WITN.

A Pinetops officer was arrested Thursday by the FBI.

FBI Statement of Fact:

FBI- John Carl Statement of Fact by WITN on Scribd