FBI Arrests 2nd North Carolinian for "Violent Entry" of Capitol

 

Pic from YouTube via Daily Beast

Yesterday in Garner, the FBI arrested 32-year-old Stephen Maury Baker on Federal charges in the siege of the Capitol on January 6th. Baker filmed himself storming the building and streamed it live on social media including on his YouTube channel, "Stephen Ignoramus" (not making that up). Stephen the Ignoramus thought better of his brag and had deleted the video by January 8th, but "investigators found copies of the videos that had been uploaded to other video sites, as well as by news media organizations" (NandO).

The Daily Beast outed Baker last week, saying he was living in Washington, D.C., working as a music teacher at a popular music store in Tenleytown. His boss said she was appalled when she watched his livestream on the day of the riot, finding out for the first time that he had a history of posting anti-Semitic, racist, and homophobic rants on two different YouTube channels.

A co-worker of Baker's at the music store added detail about his apparent radicalization:

Several years ago, Steve took a month or so off to go to a friend's farm in the Shenandoah. It was apparently some kind of survivalist retreat. When he came back he had a different look in his eyes. Something had changed in him. Shortly after he started streaming on Youtube. (He came to me to ask for advice on cameras. And he was cagey about his channel, not telling us how to find it. Eventually, he told us his pseudonym, Stephen Ignoramus. That's when I logged on and was surprised at what he was saying.