Proud Boys Leader Arrested After Burning Of Church’s Black Lives Matter Banner

The leader of the right-wing street gang the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, was arrested Monday in Washington, D.C., the Metropolitan Police Department confirmed to TPM.

Tarrio was arrested on a destruction of property charge related to a Dec. 12 offense, MPD spokesperson Sean Hickman said.

The New York Times reported that the specific destruction of property charge stemmed from the burning of a historically Black church’s Black Lives Matter banner during a pro-Trump protest in D.C., for which Tarrio subsequently claimed credit online.

“So let me make this simple,” he wrote last month. “I did it.”

At the time Tarrio’s arrest, he also allegedly possessed two high capacity firearm magazines, Hickman told TPM.

“He was additionally charged with Possession of High Capacity Feeding Device,” Hickman said.

USA Today’s Will Carless first reported that Tarrio had narrated his impending arrest during a phone interview.

“We believe Enrique has been arrested once he got to DC,” the prominent Proud Boy Joe Biggs wrote around the same time on Parler in response to the arrest.

“The left can burn right wing people’s flags, signs and banners and nothing happens. One or too [sic] black supremacist signs get burnt and it’s game over. This country is beyond fucked,” Biggs added separately.

Tarrio was expected in D.C. this week for a pro-Trump protest.

Two Black Lives Matter banners from historically Black churches were burned on the night of the December pro-Trump protest: one at Asbury United Methodist Church and one at Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Tarrio claimed credit for burning Asbury United Methodist Church’s banner, but he and other unidentified Proud Boys were also sued Monday by Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church over that church’s burned banner.