NC man charged in bomb threat standoff near Capitol; judge orders competency hearing
A federal magistrate ordered a competency hearing for a North Carolina man charged with threatening to detonate a bomb near the Capitol after the 51-year-old suspect claimed he had difficulty understanding Friday's court proceedings because he had not taken prescribed medication for two days.
Floyd Ray Roseberry, who livestreamed part of a standoff Thursday with U.S. Capitol Police, claimed during his first court appearance that he was having difficulty with his memory because he was without access to "mind medicine," as U.S. Magistrate Zia Faruqui began outlining the charges against him.
Roseberry is charged with threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction and explosives. Though no actual device was discovered in a pickup truck that Roseberry parked on a sidewalk outside the Library of Congress, authorities claimed that bomb making materials were recovered.
"My memory is not well, sir," Roseberry told Faruqui.
Roseberry peacefully surrendered to police after an extended standoff with authorities that prompted an evacuation of parts of the government complex, drawing a massive law enforcement response.
Early in the confrontation, Roseberry called attention to his plight on a Facebook broadcast where he repeatedly appealed to President Joe Biden, referred to an approaching "revolution" and warned of four other devices that had been planted across the city.
More: Bomb suspect surrenders to police near US Capitol, North Carolina man claimed to have bomb in pickup
"The revolution is on. It's here," he said in the video showing him seated at the wheel of the vehicle. “I'm looking for all my other patriots to come out and help me."
In court documents Friday, FBI Special Agent Brandon Camiliere said that local North Carolina authorities had received a report Thursday from a Roseberry relative that the suspect spouted anti-government views and rhetoric and intended to travel to "Virginia or Washington, D.C. to conduct acts of violence."
The unnamed relative, according to the FBI affidavit, also reported that Roseberry talked of taking "a trench coat to protect him from Taser and pepper ball guns and he would just tip his cowboy hat at the police.”
Prior to Friday's court proceedings in Washington, Cleveland County, North Carolina Sheriff Alan Norman said local authorities were preparing to assist in a search of Roseberry’s home Friday in the town of Grover.
Norman said in an interview that he expected authorities to focus their search on any components that could be used in assembling an explosive.
Apart from some traffic offenses and years-old marijuana related charges, Norman said the local man had no serious criminal history.
The sheriff said Roseberry had been charged in a 1989 case of breaking and entering, but the case was dismissed by local prosecutors.
“He’s somebody you might call a sleeper,” Norman said, indicating that there were no overt signs that Roseberry would be a likely suspect in a scenario that played out hundreds of miles away in Washington, D.C.
Norman said Roseberry’s family has been “completely” cooperative in the inquiry.