Thirty months after a horde of Donald Trump supporters invaded the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, federal authorities have charged a Douglas County man with assaulting police officers amid some of the most violent moments of the riot.
For most of the time between the riot and the arrest, federal authorities had suspected Phillip Marion “Bunky” Crawford Jr. was present at the Capitol, but they didn’t have enough evidence to charge him with a crime. In March 2021, the 48-year-old Winston resident told investigators he was at the Capitol but did not participate in the violence or enter the building, court records say.
Over the intervening years, investigators pieced together witness statements, photos and videos taken that day. Court documents filed by prosecutors last week show Crawford at multiple locations on the Capitol grounds during the riot, including allegedly fighting with Capitol police in the entry tunnel on the lower West Terrace.
Crawford was arrested July 12 and charged with assaulting a Capitol police officer, a felony punishable by up to eight years in prison. He also faces five misdemeanor counts related to his alleged conduct while on Capitol grounds. He had his initial appearance in federal court in Atlanta that same day and was released on $20,000 bond and ordered to remain in his home with a GPS ankle monitor.
According to court records, Crawford allegedly rallied rioters at the West Terrace, urging them to charge the police line and force their way into the Capitol.
“Hey! We’re going to charge in that (expletive)!” Crawford reportedly said on a video taken during the riot.
Credit: U.S. Department of Justice
Credit: U.S. Department of Justice
According to the criminal complaint, once at the lower West Terrace tunnel, Crawford allegedly “began swinging his hands with closed fists at the fully-uniformed police officers guarding the entrance.” At one point, Crawford attempted to pull a fallen officer into the crowd, and later he threw a gas mask into the police line, investigators wrote.
Crawford is the 24th person with Georgia ties to be charged in the expansive Jan. 6 investigation, and he is one of several alleged to have participated in the hand-to-hand fighting with police on the West Terrace.
Kevin Douglas Creek of Johns Creek was sentenced to 27 months incarceration in March 2022 after he pleaded guilty to fighting with police as they tried to hold back the crowd advancing on the Capitol. Locust Grove resident Jack Wade Whitton faces the possibility of years in prison following his guilty plea last September on charges that he fought with police in the same scrum in the West Terrace tunnel. Whitton is scheduled to be sentenced next month, but his defense attorney has asked for more time to complete a psychological evaluation of his client. Jake Maxwell of Athens was arrested in February 2022 and charged with fighting with police on the terrace.
Since the riot, several witnesses contacted the FBI to tell them of Crawford’s alleged involvement, each saying Crawford had told them personally he was there and showed them photos and videos he took while on Capitol grounds. A break in the case came in January when a sergeant with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office identified Crawford from photos taken during the riot as the same person who had filed a police report on a suspected stolen trailer.
Investigators have charged at least 1,069 people with crimes related to the Jan. 6 riot, and approximately 350 of those have been charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding police officers. Those accused of fighting with police are among participants who have faced the most serious charges.
