Ryan Taylor Nichols

Ryan Taylor Nichols, of Longview, Texas, traveled to Washington, D.C. on January 5, 2021 with co-defendant Alex Kirk Harkrider after exchanging messages about bringing body armor and firearms, warning Harkrider that "Washington will be a warzone" and there was a "big possibility that actual battle goes down." Both men wore body armor to the Capitol; Nichols carried a crowbar, Harkrider a tactical tomahawk axe. At the Lower West Terrace tunnel, Nichols helped push the crowd against the police line and took a canister of pepper spray from the crowd, spraying it directly at officers. He and Harkrider then entered the Capitol through a broken window, where Nichols brandished his crowbar and used a bullhorn to call other rioters inside, shouting "This is the second revolution" and "This is not a peaceful protest." That night, in a video posted to Facebook, Nichols declared, "So, yes, I'm calling for violence! ... Ryan Nichols stands for violence." He was arrested on January 18, 2021, and pleaded guilty to obstruction of an official proceeding and assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers.