Arkansas man busted for beating Washington, D.C. cop with flagpole during Capitol riot
![Arkansas man busted for beating Washington, D.C. cop with flagpole during Capitol riot](https://thenewyorkmail.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/1-36.jpg)
An Arkansas man has been busted for beating a police officer with a flagpole during last week’s U.S. Capitol riot in an attack caught on camera, officials said.
Peter Francis Stager, 41, was charged with blocking a D.C. Metropolitan Police officer from his duties by bashing him with the pole, according to a complaint.
“Stager climbed the stairs (of the Capitol) while holding a flagpole with a United State flag affixed it it and used the pole to repeatedly strike B.M. (the officer) while B.M. remained prone on the steps,” the criminal complaint filed in D.C. said.
![Peter Francis Stager](https://www.nydailynews.com/resizer/LxYTHxJx9rYrgPm9U8Z4PWoVcXQ=/800x599/top/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tronc/LYLP6WSOIRAMVGDPEGP6HIVU7E.jpg)
The Conway, Ark. man was arrested by Thursday evening at his lawyer’s office after the feds couldn’t find at his home, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.
Stager told an informant he thought the man he was attacking was a member of Antifa, not a police officer, according to the complaint.
Dozens of rioters have been charged in the days since the Jan. 6 attack on the nation’s capitol.
Washington FBI office head Steven D’Antuono said at a news conference Tuesday that the 160 suspects identified so far were just the “tip of the iceberg.”