Missouri man pleads guilty to carrying gun onto Capitol grounds during Jan. 6 riot

A north-central Missouri man has pleaded guilty in federal court to taking a firearm onto the U.S. Capitol grounds during the Jan. 6 riot.

Jerod Thomas Bargar, of Centralia, entered a guilty plea to entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, a felony. His hearing took place Thursday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Bargar’s sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 3 before U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison as well as financial penalties.

Bargar was arrested in Osage Beach in August 2022. He originally faced felony offenses of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon and unlawful possession of a firearm on Capitol grounds or buildings along with related misdemeanors.

The firearm was a 9mm semi-automatic pistol “held in a distinctive holster that displayed an image of the American flag and had the words ‘We The People’ written on it,” the charging document said.

Bargar, 37, is the 20th Missouri resident to plead guilty in connection with the Capitol riot. Of those, 15 have been sentenced. The cases of five other Missouri defendants are still winding their way through the courts.

The charging document said that on Jan. 6, 2021, protesters on the west side of the Capitol building broke through a line of law enforcement officers around 2:27 p.m. A few minutes later, a Metropolitan Police lieutenant stationed in the area was alerted by a fellow officer about a firearm that had emerged from the crowd and was lying on the ground. The fellow officer used his right foot to drag the firearm out of the crowd.

The gun contained one 9mm cartridge stamped “WIN 9mm LUGER” in the chamber and approximately 15 9mm cartridges in the magazine, the document said, with a total capacity of more than 10 rounds.

After the riot, the document said, the FBI received an anonymous tip that Jerod Bargar and his friend had posted photos on Facebook saying they were 10 feet away from the woman who was shot inside the Capitol.

FBI agents interviewed Bargar at his home on Jan. 18, 2021, according to the document. He told agents that he and his friend traveled to Washington, D.C., by car on Jan. 5, 2021, to attend a political rally. After the rally, he said, the two walked to the Capitol building where they witnessed “chaos.”

“Bargar stated that he did not enter the Capitol building or participate in illegal activity because he knew where the ‘line’ was” and that it “was obvious officers were trying to keep protesters out,” the document said.

The FBI did not know at the time of the interview that the gun belonged to Bargar, and Bargar didn’t mention it, according to the document.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives later found that the gun’s owner had pawned it in Jefferson City several years earlier. When FBI agents went to the pawn shop, they learned that the gun had been purchased in 2011 by a man they soon discovered was Bargar’s stepfather. The stepfather told the FBI that he’d given the gun to Bargar about a year-and-a-half earlier.

Agents then interviewed Bargar again, this time at his friend’s home in Centralia, the court document said. Bargar told agents that he and his friend were at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and were in a group of protesters outside the building when police began to spray tear gas and deploy other munitions into the crowd. He said a woman was knocked to the ground, and he and his friend helped her up. Soon after that, he said, he realized he had lost his gun.

When FBI agents showed him a photo of the pistol found on the Capitol grounds, the document said, Bargar acknowledged it was his.

“Bargar stated that he wore the firearm in an inside-the-waistband patriot motif holster,” the document said. “Bargar stated that he is always armed and wanted to be armed when he went to the ‘belly of the beast’ for his own ‘self-protection.’”

Checks run on the firearm revealed that it was not registered in the District of Columbia and that Bargar was not licensed to carry a firearm in the District of Columbia as required by law, the document said.

Bargar told agents that he did not know at the time he traveled to Washington, D.C., that it was illegal to possess a handgun there or on federal property.

Bargar made numerous Facebook posts on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, the document said, placing him in the Washington, D.C., area and on the National Mall. A later examination of Bargar’s Facebook account, it said, showed he had made some alterations.

“He had changed the name on the account to Thomas Bargar, and the place of residence to New Jersey.”