#Capitol rioter Dominic Pezzola had bomb-making manuals: prosecutors

An upstate New York man charged in the deadly riot at the US Capitol earlier this month had a thumb drive chock full of instructions for making homemade weapons, poisons and explosives, federal prosecutors charged in new court documents filed Friday.

Rochester resident Dominic “Spaz” Pezzola, 43, a reported member of the far-right group the Proud Boys, “poses a serious danger to the community and a serious risk of flight,” prosecutors wrote in the memo filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.

Prosecutors charge that Pezzola stormed the US Capitol on Jan. 6 by breaking a window with the shield of a Capitol police officer, ultimately “allowing the first group of rioters to stream through.”

“The defendant’s actions show planning, determination, and coordination,” the court documents state. “His stated desire to commit further acts of violence, combined with his access to weapons-and-bomb-making manuals, is extremely concerning.”

At the time of Pezzola’s arrest on Jan. 15, the FBI executed a search warrant at Pezzola’s home and discovered a thumb drive with hundreds of PDF files, including a “significant” sum that “provided detailed instructions for making homemade firearms, poisons, and/or explosives,” the court papers state.

Some of the documents found on the thumb drive were titled “Advanced Improvised Explosives,” “Explosive Dusts,” “Ragnar’s Big Book of Homemade Weapons” and “The Advanced Anarchist’s Arsenal: Recipes for Improvised Incendiaries and Explosives,” prosecutors say.

The files contained “detailed instructions for how to make the subject matter reflected in their titles,” according to the court documents.

Prosecutors are seeking to have the court order the pre-trial detention of Pezzola.  

Pezzola has been charged with obstruction of an official proceeding, destruction of government property and knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority.

He allegedly fired up a “victory” cigar after breaking into the Capitol with a horde of former President Trump-supporting rioters.

Authorities allege that Pezzola and others stated that they would have killed anyone they got their hands on, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Vice President Mike Pence.