This is the Proud Boys Supporter Who Filmed Attacks on the Media at the Capitol Riot
February 8, 2021The video shows a mob of angry Trump supporters rushing the media staging area by the Capitol chanting “fuck fake news,” stomping, kicking, and smashing camera equipment with sticks. “Treasonous scum,” one livestreamer shouted. “Here’s a fucking news story for you, you fucking traitors.”
The video, notable for its violence against the media, spread widely in the wake of the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol. Now, VICE News can report who was behind the camera doing the shouting: Gabriel Brown, 37, a Proud Boy supporter from Long Island, who is now wanted by the FBI for his alleged role in attacking the media.
Brown, who works in commercial shellfish harvesting, has been a fixture at fascist events on the East Coast for the last few years—including the violent Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017. The FBI released a still of Brown, in which he’s labeled #Photograph 204: AOM” (an acronym for “assault on media.)
Brown is a prolific livestreamer, and shares hours of videos from far-right events to his YouTube channel, GB0083. In the video from Jan. 6, which he’s since removed, the crowd of Trump supporters advance on the designated media pen, causing journalists to flee for their safety. “You didn’t want to do your fucking job, well now you can’t,” Brown is heard shouting over his livestream. “This is raw, this is reality TV.” “Murder the Media” was also scrawled on the walls of the Capitol itself, and the group of rioters who smashed camera equipment fashioned a noose out of a camera cord and displayed it on top of the wreckage.
The FBI regularly updates its library of wanted insurrectionists when one is arrested, and the Justice Department has a database of individuals who are facing charges. Brown does not appear to have been arrested, nor has he been identified by the FBI.
The FBI declined to comment to VICE News other than to confirm that is is seeking the individuals pictured on its website.
However, many Proud Boys are already facing charges, including some key organizers in the far-right street-fighting gang, such as Joe Biggs and Ethan Nordean.
(Gavin McInnes was a co-founder of VICE. He left the company in 2008 and has had no involvement since then. He later founded the Proud Boys in 2016.)
Brown has long been on the radar of antifascist researchers who have documented his involvement with the far-right since at least 2017, much of which he chronicled himself on his YouTube channel (which he’s scrubbed in recent days).
The Southern Poverty Law Center has described Brown as a Proud Boy, but it’s unclear whether he ever officially initiated into the group. He clearly has established close ties with many Proud Boys, and has regularly been seen at rallies or in bars with members of the group, but has never been spotted wearing their uniform: a black-and-yellow Fred Perry polo shirt.
In May 2017, Brown posted a video from the “Free Speech” rally in Boston, which drew an array of alt-right activists including militias, Proud Boys, and MAGA teens. That month, he posed for a photograph alongside former Trump advisor Roger Stone, ex-Proud Boy Jovi Val, and Proud Boy “Tiny Toese” who recently served time in prison for assault on antifascist protesters.
That same month, he attended a protest in New York City against CUNY’s invitation to Muslim-American activist Linda Sarsour to deliver the school’s commencement speech. The event was also attended by the likes of Proud Boy founder Gavin McGinnes, Laura Loomer, Milo Yiannopolous and other anti-Muslim activists who waved “Kekistan” flags, a popular alt-right meme that started on 4chan. He was also photographed at an official Proud Boy meeting in New York City that summer, according to NYC Antifa, who have tracked Proud Boy activity closely.
According to Its Going Down, a hub for antifascist organizing, Brown also traveled to Chantilly, Virginia that summer, to join protesters like Infowars’ Owen Shroyer outside the annual conference of the Bilderberg Group, which draws European and North American political figures and elites to discuss transatlantic issues. It’s a popular target among conspiracy theorists, which was why Jones and his Infowars crew were there. Brown posed for a photograph alongside Chris Cantwell, also known as the “Crying Nazi.” A couple months later, Cantwell and Brown’s paths crossed again, this time in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Some of Brown’s videos, which he posted to his YouTube channel, have been archived by the WayBackMachine. In one of those videos, he’s explaining why he’s there, and saying while he doesn’t agree with everyone present he supports their right to demonstrate. Standing behind him is neo-Nazi James Alex Fields, who is currently serving a life sentence for ramming into a crowd of protesters that day.
Many in the far-right sought to distance themselves after the violence of Unite the Right. But Brown was among a small group who continued to organize and participate in events, including the “Resist Marxism” rally in Boston that November.
Brown also showed up to the “Speak English Please” rally in New York City in 2018 outside Trump Tower, which was organized in support of attorney Aaron Schlossberg who went viral when he was seen on video threatening to call ICE on a woman who was speaking Spanish at a popular NYC lunch spot. He was also seen in photographs posing alongside Proud Boys.
Most recently, Brown was in Washington D.C. in December for a “Stop the Steal” rally wearing Proud Boy colors. He gave a short interview to the Allen Report, a YouTuber who travels across the U.S. to “audit” constitutional activity around the country but mostly seems to hang out with Proud Boys.
At the time of the interview, Brown was standing among a large group of protesters at an intersection by Harry’s Bar, a popular watering hole for law enforcement and Proud Boys. They had just heard reports that an antifascist activist had allegedly infiltrated the bloc of right-wing protesters and stabbed a Proud Boy—just one stabbing in a particularly bloody and violent night on the streets of D.C.
“It’s so sad that here is where we are in America, where you get stabbed for your political beliefs,” said Brown to the camera.
Brown did not respond to VICE News’ request for comment.
