A Man Showed Up to the DNC With a Machete and a Swastika-Covered Car

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U.S. Capitol Police arrested a California man who had a bayonet, a machete, and “multiple knives” in his car, as well as swastikas displayed in the rear-view mirror and interior, outside of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington on Monday.

A USCP officer was on patrol around midnight Monday when he noticed a Dodge Dakota pickup truck parked outside of the DNC, according to a press release from USCP.  The driver was identified as 44-year-old Donald Craighead.

The truck had an American flag where the license plate should be and had a swastika and “other white supremacist symbols” painted on it, photos published by USCP show. One photo also shows a reference to the Confederacy written above the steering wheel on the console. 

Craighead allegedly told USCP officers that he was “on patrol” and began espousing white supremacist rhetoric. He was arrested and charged with possession of prohibited weapons, as both bayonets and machetes are illegal in D.C. 

A man with the same name and age as Craighead was the defendant in a 2015 San Diego County family court case classified as “domestic violence prevention with minor children,” according to the San Diego County Superior Court’s website. 

Craighead’s arrest comes less than a month after Floyd Ray Roseberry, a 49-year-old North Carolina man, Facebook live-streamed his threat to blow up the street outside the Library of Congress. Roseberry’s threat forced the evacuation of multiple Congressional buildings and the Supreme Court.

Eventually, Roseberry was taken into custody without incident and was charged with use of weapons of mass destruction and explosives. The old, rusted can that Roseberry claimed was a detonator was later found to have an unknown substance in it as well as a fabricated trigger, according to an affidavit from an FBI agent.