Updated at 3:47 p.m. to include information from a court hearing.
A Burleson man was arrested Tuesday morning after the FBI says he took part in the U.S. Capitol riots on Jan. 6. He claimed he was a citizen journalist, and posted to social media before and after the insurrection, according to a criminal complaint.
Nicholas DeCarlo, 30, faces three charges in federal court, according to a criminal complaint filed on Jan. 19: entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds, intent to impede or disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business or official functions, and parading or demonstrating on Capitol grounds.
DeCarlo is the seventh person from North Texas who has been publicly identified by the FBI and charged in the insurrection. He appeared in court at 2:30 p.m. in Fort Worth where he waived his right to a preliminary hearing. Prosecutors didn't ask the court to detain him.
Decarlo was later released on bond Tuesday. He must remain under home detention and can't travel anywhere outside of North Texas other than Washington D.C. where his case will resume.
He cannot go near the U.S. Capitol.
The FBI criminal complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, says DeCarlo told the Los Angeles Times that he was a reporter. The FBI said he was not credentialed as a reporter at the Capitol while the LA Times said he had a YouTube channel with less than 600 followers.
The criminal complaint says DeCarlo posted photos throughout the day with Nicholas Ochs, who faces a count of unlawful entry into restricted buildings or grounds. The FBI said Ochs is the leader and founder of the Hawaii chapter of the "Proud Boys."
One photo in the complaint allegedly shows Ochs and DeCarlo smoking inside the Capitol building. Ochs posted the caption “Hello from the Capital [sic] lol”
Open source information identified them both in a video on YouTube called “Twas the night before the Revolution,” the complaint said.
The video was streamed live on the morning of Jan. 6 and appeared to show Ochs and DeCarlo walking in the streets of Washington D.C. in a crowd who were also walking in the same direction, the complaint said.
After leaving the Capitol that day, Ochs posted a video on the social media site Telegram and the video was later found on Twitter. The video allegedly showed Ochs and DeCarlo walking down a sidewalk saying that they saw on a TV inside a house that they successfully “stopped the vote when we stormed the Capitol,” the complaint said.
In the video, DeCarlo says “we did it” and Ochs says “we were being sarcastic but we didn’t know we were actually going to...I was being a bit facetious” and DeCarlo replies “Oh no, that’s what I came down here to do,” the complaint said.
The complaint says that DeCarlo gave an interview to the LA Times on Jan. 13 where he admitted to being inside the Capitol Building. DeCarlo claimed that he and Ochs were working journalists, but they are not listed as credentialed reporters with the House Periodical Press Gallery or the U.S. Senate Press Gallery.
The FBI agent also learned that DeCarlo purports to be an employee of “MT Media News” which stands for “Murder the Media News,” the complaint said.
In the complaint, there were photos of DeCarlo and Ochs inside the Capitol Building posing beside a door that had been etched with “murder the media.” DeCarlo is wearing a “Murder the media” shirt and hat while posing in front of the door.
