NC man who attacked police Jan. 6 hoped to storm Capitol again at inauguration, FBI says

A North Carolina man is accused of striking a police officer with a large metal pole and punching others with his fists during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

For David Gietzen, however, that may have only been Act One.

After joining the unprecedented mob assault on U.S. democracy on Jan. 6, the 38-year-old Sanford man returned to the Capitol two weeks later on Inauguration Day planning to take part in a second violent attempt to keep Donald Trump in office, according to a report received by the FBI.

In an affidavit unsealed this month, the FBI says it got word 10 days after the Capitol attack that Gietzen and his unidentified brother intended to return to Washington for President Joe Biden’s swearing-in on Jan. 20. Once there, according to report, the brothers hoped to join others in a repeat assault on the Capitol to force Congress into ordering a new election, the affidavit alleges.

When FBI agents contacted Gietzen by phone on Jan. 19, 2021, he told them that he and his brother already were en route to D.C.., but that “he had no intentions of committing any acts of violence,” the affidavit says.

The FBI document does not include any details of Gietzen’s behavior the next day. However, he was arrested this month on eight charges, including two felony counts of assaulting police. One of those assault charges involved the use of a deadly weapon, presumably the large metal pole Gietzen carried in several photographs included in the affidavit.

Gietzen becomes at least the 33rd North Carolinian arrested on Jan. 6-related charges. He made his preliminary court appearance on May 17, a week after his arrest, and was released on his own recognizance by U.S. Magistrate Judge Robin M. Meriweather of Washington.

One of Gietzen’s court-appointed attorneys, Assistant Federal Public Defender Lisa Costner of Greensboro, told The Charlotte Observer on Tuesday that she could not comment on a pending case. Gietzen’s next court appearance has not been scheduled.

Overall, more than 810 U.S. citizens have been arrested in connection with the attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters to stop congressional certification of the ex-president’s election defeat. The mob, which numbered in the thousands, was enraged by Trump’s baseless claims that he had lost the election due to voting fraud.

At least five deaths have been linked to the violence. More than 140 police officers were injured while the Capitol was left with an estimated $1.5 million in damages.

How many Jan. 6 rioters returned to the Capitol for the Inauguration is unknown. However, a Florida man was arrested in Washington on Jan. 20, and charged with Jan. 6 crimes.

Gietzen is the first publicly identified N.C. defendant to have been in Washington for both Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, 2021 and the inauguration two weeks later. He has not been charged with any crimes connected to his inaugural visit. His brother, who was unidentified in court documents, remains uncharged up to now.

Gietzen was suspect No. 217 on the FBI’s page of Jan. 6 participants. It learned of his identity in February 2021 after receiving a tip from an N.C. resident who knew Gietzen from college, the affidavit claims.

While Gietzen told the FBI that he and his brother never made it to the Capitol on Jan. 6, multiple photographs in his case file show him battling police at perimeter security lines. In another image, he and others confront a squad of police guarding a tunnel leading into the Capitol.

In later photos included in the documents, Gietzen is carrying a long metal pipe. The FBI said he used the pipe as a weapon in the assaults on one or more officers around 2:30 p.m., shortly before he is believed to have left the area.

This story was originally published May 24, 2022 at 6:00 AM.

Michael Gordon

The Charlotte Observer

704-358-5095

Michael Gordon has been the Observer’s legal affairs writer since 2013. He has been an editor and reporter at the paper since 1992, occasionally writing about schools, religion, politics and sports. He spent two summers as “Bikin Mike,” filing stories as he pedaled across the Carolinas.