The U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday the arrest of a Forsyth man on charges that he assaulted police officers defending the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Michael Bradley, 49, is charged with two felonies — assaulting a police officer and civil disorder — and several misdemeanors and is accused of being part of the brutal fighting between rioters and police at an entry tunnel near the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol.
According to an FBI affidavit filed with the Middle Georgia U.S. District Court, Bradley entered the Capitol grounds between 4 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. and made his way to the tunnel where dozens of rioters were stacked up fighting with police who filled the mouth of the tunnel. Investigators say that Bradley raised his baton to strike at police but was forced back by chemical spray. He allegedly returned to the fight a minute later, and photos show the man identified as Bradley raising his baton to strike again. According to the FBI affidavit, Bradley struck twice at police with the baton.
Credit: U.S. Department of Justice
Credit: U.S. Department of Justice
The West Terrace area saw some of the day’s most vicious fighting between rioters and police, and Bradley is not the only Georgian charged in it.
- Jack Wade Whitton, a fencing contractor from Locust Grove, was arrested in April 2021 and charged with punching and grabbing police in the tunnel as well as hitting them with a metal crutch. Whitton pleaded guilty last September in a plea deal that required him to assist prosecutors in other tunnel cases. Sentencing in his case is set for November.
- Kevin Douglas Creek, a former Marine and roofing contractor from Milton, was charged in June 2021 with assault for fighting with police on the Lower West Terrace. Creek pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced in May 2022 to 27 months in prison.
- Jake Maxwell of Athens was charged in February 2022 with assaulting police in a melee on the Lower West Terrace. That case is ongoing.
- In July of this year, authorities charged Phillip “Bunky” Crawford of Villa Rica with assaulting police in the tunnel. According to court records, Crawford allegedly attempted to punch police officers, tried to pull a fallen officer into the crowd of rioters and threw a metal gas mask at a line of police. His case is in the initial stages.
There’s no indication that any of the Georgians charged with the fighting on the terrace knew each other.
Prior to Bradley’s arrest, the FBI had been searching since the early days of the investigation for a man dubbed “#CommanderCamo” because he wore a camouflaged hat and jacket during the riot. The man’s identity had been unknown until earlier this past January when someone submitted an anonymous online tip to the FBI saying they had overheard two men bragging about being involved in the riot.
The tipster identified Bradley as one of the men, according to an FBI affidavit filed with the Middle Georgia U.S. District Court Friday. The other man, whom the tipster also named, is listed only as “Witness 1″ and Bradley’s friend and neighbor.
Investigators searched the friend’s Facebook account and found a Jan. 5, 2021, post showing the two men with the caption, “D.C. bound. Over the hill soldiers.” In the photo, Bradley is wearing a camouflage ball cap similar to the one in the photos from the riot.
Last month, investigators got further identification help from another of Bradley’s neighbors who confirmed his identify from the riot photos and “provided additional accurate information concerning Bradley’s family,” the affidavit states.
Bradley made his first appearance in federal court in Macon Friday and signed a $15,000 unsecured bond.
Unlike many of the more than 1,146 people so far charged in the sprawling Capitol riot investigation, Bradley’s arrest is not his first. According to the Georgia Department of Corrections, Bradley has been in prison four times dating back to 1996 with charges ranging from DUI and forgery to a 2002 conviction for trafficking methamphetamine for which he received a 15-year sentence. He was released from prison on that charge in 2012, DOC records say.
So far, 27 people with Georgia ties have been charged with crimes stemming from the Capitol riot.
