A Florida man who is accused of taking part in the storming of the Capitol on January 6 described the insurrection as "like a Rosa Parks" moment for him.
Felipe Marquez, of Coral Springs, is accused of knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds following the violence in Washington, D.C.
According to the FBI criminal affidavit, authorities were able to identify Marquez taking part in the attack after he posted several videos of himself at the scene onto the social media app Snapchat.
Speaking to CBS Miami, Marquez admitted to being part of the mob and that he heard about the planned protests in the capital that day "through the president."
Marquez also said he sees a similarity between the insurrection, which left five people dead, and key civil rights moments.
"This is like a Rosa Parks, like Martin Luther King moment for me. As long as I'm peaceful and I can say, 'Hey, let's all come together,' I think that's the most important thing," he said.
Marquez said he doesn't believe he should face any charges because he wasn't violent and didn't anything once inside the building.
"For the people that were violent, you did something very bad," he added.
According to the FBI affidavit, authorities were tipped off about Marquez by someone who had viewed his Snapchat video stories.
Marquez filmed himself driving in his Tesla car from Florida to Washington, D.C to attend the pro-Trump rally on January 6.
In one clip, Marquez films people scaling a wall located on the west side of the Capitol building. At one point a voice yells out "Yeah baby. We climbed the wall.''
The camera also focuses downward towards another person ascending the wall and the crowd remaining on the ground. In the clip, a man says "there goes my sign, baby. Trump won.''
Later on, Marquez films himself inside the Capitol building. In one clip, someone pushes over a table lamp and says: "Why would l want to steal this bull****?"
The FBI said Marquez filmed himself standing in what is believed to have been Oregon Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley's secret "hideaway" office.
The FBI said the artwork visible on the walls of the conference room in Marquez's
Snapchat video is also seen in a clip Merkley uploaded to Twitter later that night showing the extent of the damage.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, domestic policy ... Read more
