DENVER – A man who lives in the Telluride area was arrested Saturday and charged with assaulting officers and other federal counts in connection with the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to court documents unsealed Tuesday.
Avery Carter MacCracken was arrested in Norwood Saturday after a warrant was issued for his arrest last Friday on six federal charges relating to his alleged participation in the riot at the Capitol.
He faces counts including assaulting, resisting or impeding officers using a dangerous weapon of inflicting bodily injury; civil disorder; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds, and act of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or buildings, according to an arrest warrant and statement of facts filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
MacCracken was captured on videos and in photos fighting with U.S. Capitol Police officers, which were released by the FBI and a website called Sedition Hunters on which people work to identify those involved in the insurrection on Jan. 6.
MacCracken pushed and shoved at least two Capitol Police officers that day, according to videos and body camera videos. He also punched one officer in the right cheek, cutting the officer’s eye, which the officer documented with a selfie.
Another officer who was nearby on a line outside of the Capitol was also assaulted by MacCracken, according to body camera video, the federal documents state.
Federal agents found that MacCracken had flown on Jan. 3 from Montrose to Washington, D.C., and had flown back to the Montrose airport on Jan. 9.
A Telluride resident contacted San Miguel County Sheriff Bill Masters to report that MacCracken was the person identified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as AFO-387.
Masters told the FBI he also recognized the man as MacCracken, whom he said had been living on and off in the Telluride area for most of the past 40 years and who lives out of his vehicle.
According to the federal court documents, Masters said he knows MacCracken “extremely well” because of the numerous times he has contacted him.
Masters said he had seen MacCracken dressed in the exact same outfit he was pictured wearing on Jan. 6 multiple times, and recognized that two buildings MacCracken was pictured standing in front of in a photo on the Sedition Hunters website were a bar in Telluride and the San Miguel County courthouse.
Telluride Marshals Office Chief Marshal Josh Comte also told the FBI that he recognized MacCracken as the man seen in the photos and that he had dealt with him personally and also seen him wearing the same clothes he was wearing on Jan. 6.
And Comte also reported seeing MacCracken wearing those same clothes – a red hat, blue jacket, white shorts with a black stripe on the sides and black leggings – on Dec. 2 while he was walking his dog in Telluride.
MacCracken is at least the 12th Coloradan to be charged in relation to the Jan. 6 insurrection. Two Colorado Springs men have already pleaded guilty in their cases.