2 more South Carolina men arrested in connection with Jan. 6 Capitol riot
Two more South Carolinians who allegedly took part in the Jan. 6 mob attack on the U.S Capitol were arrested Monday.
That brings to five the number of South Carolinians who have been linked to the riot. Four of the five face formal charges; another is being investigated, according to court records.
The two York County men were to appear before Magistrate Judge Paige Gossett in federal court in Columbia Monday afternoon.
One is Eliaz Irizarry, 19, of Rock Hill and the other is Elliott Bishai, 20, of Fort Mill, according to a criminal complaint in the case.
They are both charged with violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, illegally knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building and knowingly engaging in disorderly or disruptive conduct in any restricted building or grounds.
A friend of Irizarry and Bishai tipped federal authorities off to the presence of the two men inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, according to the complaint.
The friend said he and others in a Civil Air Patrol Unit that Irizarry and Bishai belong to recognized the two men in photographs being circulated by the FBI in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack, the complaint said.
Irizarry and Bishai are believed to be the first persons from York County to be charged in the capitol riots.
The other three South Carolinians that authorities have linked to the Capitol attack are:
▪ William Norwood III, of Greer, is charged with knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building without lawful authority, violent and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, obstruction of justice and theft of government property.
▪ Andrew Hatley is charged with “uttering threatening, or abusive language, or engag(ing) in disorderly or disruptive conduct, at any place in the Grounds or in any of the Capitol Buildings with the intent to impede, disrupt, or disturb the orderly conduct of a session of Congress or either House of Congress.” He is also charged with engaging disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
▪ James Giannakos, of Gilbert in Lexington County, is being investigated in connection with being at the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, according to an FBI search warrant. He has not been charged.
In Washington, federal prosecutors last week filed a court document that says, “The investigation and prosecution of the Capitol Attack will likely be one of the largest in American history, both in terms of the number of defendants prosecuted and the nature and volume of the evidence.”
The document says, “Over 300 individuals have been charged in connection with the Capitol Attack... The government expects that at least one hundred additional individuals will be charged.”
So far, the document says, “a combined total of over 900 search warrants have been executed in almost all fifty states and the District of Columbia.”
Documents and evidence accumulated to date in the Capitol attack investigation include: more than 15,000 hours of surveillance and body-worn camera footage from multiple law enforcement agencies and approximately 1,600 electronic devices.
The evidence also includes the “the results of hundreds of searches of electronic communication providers, over 210,000 tips, of which a substantial portion include video, photo and social media, and over 80,000 reports and 93,000 attachments related to law enforcement interviews of suspects and witnesses and other investigative steps.”
