FBI arrests Jan. 6 rioter whose photo was featured in a Biden campaign ad
Andy Steven Oliva-Lopez, a Jan. 6 rioter identified by online sleuths more than two years ago, was arrested and charged with assaulting law enforcement officers with chemical spray.
WASHINGTON — A Jan. 6 rioter dubbed "Blue Plaid Sprayer" and identified by online sleuths more than two years ago was arrested in Oregon on Tuesday and charged with assaulting law enforcement officers with chemical spray as they protected the U.S. Capitol.
Andy Steven Oliva-Lopez, the FBI says, is the man prominently featured in an image snapped by a Getty photographer that has been frequently used in news articles in the three years since the attack on Jan. 6, 2021. The image — showing a person unleashing an orange chemical spray while wearing a blue plaid shirt, a helmet and a gas mask — was recently featured in a presentation by U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Matthew Graves, and it was also included in an ad for Joe Biden's 2024 presidential campaign.
Online "sedition hunters" identified the man in 2021 and reported his information to the FBI. Until now, his case had been one of hundreds in which a suspect has been identified but not arrested. The statute of limitations expires in less than two years, in early 2026.
"We've had, for example, 'Blue Plaid Sprayer' — he's been identified for over, I believe, 700 days," one of the sleuths told NBC News this month, ahead of the third anniversary of the attack. "Hopefully we'll see some movement on him soon."
With the help of facial recognition, online sleuths were able to determine that "Blue Plaid Sprayer" attended a pro-Trump "American Lives Matter" rally at the Oregon State Capitol in September 2020. A Twitter account that appeared to be associated with him, “Primal American,” pushed out several pro-Trump messages.
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