An Illinois man has been arrested on federal charges of crossing state lines to riot and possessing an unregistered destructive device, after he was accused of posting video to social media of himself handing out what he called “bombs” to protesters in Minneapolis.
Matthew Lee Rupert, 28, of Galesburg, Ill., was arrested early Sunday in Chicago for violating the curfew there.
The federal charges announced Monday come as Attorney General William P. Barr has blamed “outside radicals and agitators” for much of the violence in the nationwide protests of police brutality, saying they are “exploiting the situation to pursue their own separate, violent, and extremist agenda.”
Barr has ordered the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces around the country to investigate and pursue such suspects.
An FBI affidavit says Rupert posted video to Facebook in which he can be seen participating in violent or destructive activities during protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, including encouraging others to throw what the complaint calls “destructive devices.”
“I’ve got some bombs if some of you all want to throw them back,” it quotes him as saying on the video, adding, “light it and throw it.”
The criminal complaint doesn’t specify what the illegal item is, describing it only as “a commercial item with a cylindrical container, hobby fuse, and a main charge capable of exploding” that “meets the definition of a destructive device.”
Rupert’s video of his actions in Minneapolis also contains images of him damaging or robbing businesses, according to the criminal complaint.
