If it isn’t one right-wing extremist patrolling Franklin Street, it’s another one running an acai bowl restaurant.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested 32-year-old Julian Khater on Monday, as well as his friend, George Pierre Tanios of Morgantown, West Virginia, for their involvement in the January 6 insurrection attempt at the U.S. Capitol.

They are charged with conspiring to injure law enforcement officers and assaulting officers, according to the FBI’s press release. In a video, Khater sprays three Capitol police officers with a chemical aerosol that temporarily blinded them. One of them was Officer Brian D. Sicknick, who died the day after the attack. While it’s uncertain whether or not the spray led to his death, investigators told the Washington Post that it became more of a suspicion in the weeks following the riot.

In the video, Khater is seen reaching into Tanios’s backpack while saying, “Give me that bear shit.” While Tanios objects at first, saying that it’s “too early,” Khater replies that “they just fucking sprayed me,” presumably referring to law enforcement.

Five minutes later, Khater walks to the police line and begins spraying the chemical in the direction of law enforcement officers, located five to eight feet from where Khater stood.

Khater’s current address is in State College, Pennsylvania, but he previously co-owned and managed Frutta Bowls in Chapel Hill, a restaurant franchise dedicated to smoothie bowls and other health foods. After a year running the location on Franklin Street, he switched to co-owning and managing a Frutta Bowls near Penn State’s campus. One of his former coworkers at the Pennsylvania location identified him in the photos from January 6.

Khater was in Chapel Hill from January 2018 to January 2019, according to his LinkedIn—meaning he was in town at the same time that anti-racist activists toppled Silent Sam. It’s currently unclear whether he was involved with any of the counter-protests while living in town.

Follow Digital Content Manager Sara Pequeño on Twitter or send an email to spequeno@indyweek.com. 

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