Snow Hill to Capitol Hill: NC couple arrested after FBI investigation into Jan. 6 riots
They’ll always have the Capitol.
Wearing matching Blue Lives Matter sweatshirts with skulls, a couple swapped North Carolina’s sleepy Snow Hill for Capitol Hill. They Googled Washington, D.C., weather and where to find rentable Spin scooters. Then, on Jan. 6, 2021, they spurred havoc when they joined rioters at the U.S. Capitol, authorities say.
In their well-documented crusade, court documents show, Curtis Davis, 45, and Tanya Bishop, 48, pushed through guarded Capitol doors, climbed atop police cars and punched and shoved officers — trying to snatch their batons.
They now face a slew of charges, both felony and misdemeanor, for “civil disorder” and assaulting officers, according to the Department of Justice.
Found footage and body camera video detail the couple’s steps as the Rotunda filled with rioters and Donald Trump supporters who were enraged by the former president’s claims of a stolen election.
At one point, Bishop held Davis back as he yelled at officers trying to push rioters out. Eventually freed, he threw punches, video shows, and landed at least one punch on a Metropolitan Police Department officer.
“Them knuckles right there,” he says, referring to his hurt hand, “from one of those motherf---er’s faces at the Capitol.”
In a video during the assault, Bishop says the couple and officers were “on the same side” against “crooked politicians,” according to the criminal complaint filed in the District of Columbia.
“You can’t turn on Americans,” Bishop said as she grasped an officer’s baton with both hands. Another officer pushed her away.
Outside, Bishop barked into a megaphone while standing on top of a police car. Davis filmed her.
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“Why is everybody walking the wrong way?” she asked as rioters filed out of the Capitol. “This is our one chance... I’m ready to go back in because this is our f------ building.”
Identifying Davis and Bishop
An FBI agent investigated the couple’s involvement after someone submitted a tip in October 2021 that the two had entered the Capitol, according to the complaint.
Greene County’s sheriff identified Davis, of Ayden, saying Davis had previous encounters with law enforcement and was last arrested about a month after the riot on Feb. 5, 2021. Officers independently identified Bishop, of Greene County, by visiting her home, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit.
Search warrants revealed the couple’s phones were in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6. Davis looked up where to rent scooters that day, and Bishop searched “What’s the weather going to be like January 6th in Washington DC.”
They were scheduled to first appear in court Monday for their felony offenses of civil disorder and assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers.
The couple is also charged with misdemeanors for entering the Capitol’s restricted building and grounds and and parading, picketing, and demonstrating while displaying “disorderly and disruptive conduct” and engaging in physical violence.
If convicted and sentenced, they will join the at least 29 North Carolina defendants who have been sentenced so far.
In September, Laura Steele, a former North Carolina police officer from High Point, was sentenced to 366 days in jail. Last month, police arrested a former Marine living in Lake Norman.
Since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,230 people have been charged in nearly all 50 states, including more than 440 charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, a felony.
