Air Force vet from North Texas identified as Capitol rioter in combat gear who was holding handcuffs

One of the Capitol rioters who managed to penetrate the U.S. Senate chamber is a military veteran from the Dallas area who once worked for a Fort Worth airline, according to The New Yorker magazine.

Hillwood Airways confirmed to that Larry Rendall Brock Jr., the subject of The New Yorker report, no longer works for the company.

Brock, identified by The New Yorker as a 53-year-old retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, told the magazine that he was the man wearing a combat helmet and body armor in photos and videos that have circulated online of mob participants who infiltrated the Capitol on Wednesday.

“The president asked for his supporters to be there to attend, and I felt like it was important, because of how much I love this country, to actually be there,” Brock told The New Yorker. He told the magazine that he agreed with President Donald Trump’s discredited claims of election fraud.

Brock did not respond to requests for comment from The News.

Brock told The New Yorker that he wore the tactical gear to avoid getting “stabbed or hurt.” As for zip-tie handcuffs he was carrying, he said he had found them on the ground and had no intentions of using them.

“I wish I had not picked those up,” Brock told the magazine. “My thought process there was I would pick them up and give them to an officer when I see one. … I didn’t do that because I had put them in my coat, and I honestly forgot about them.”

The New Yorker article notes that video shot by ITV News shows Brock, his face covered by a bandana, standing against a wall adjacent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. Brock told The New Yorker he was not among those who entered her office. He said he stopped several feet ahead of a sign bearing her title.

Brock once worked for Fort Worth-based Hillwood Airways, part of Ross Perot Jr.’s business empire. James Fuller, a spokesman for the luxury air carrier, told The News that Brock was no longer an employee.

“We have been made obviously aware of the photos,” Fuller said, adding that it is company policy not to disclose why a person is no longer employed.

Brock’s dates of employment with Hillwood were not immediately available.

Bill Leake flew with Brock in the Air Force, The New Yorker reported. He told the magazine that Brock’s political views had become increasingly radical in the last few years.

“I don’t contact him anymore ‘cause he’s gotten extreme,” Leake told the magazine.

Two family members told the magazine that Brock had made racist remarks in front of them and that white supremacist views may have played a role in his actions.

Brock graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1989, according to The New Yorker. He told the magazine he served in Afghanistan and Iraq and had received three Meritorious Service Medals, six Air Medals and three Aerial Achievement Medals.

“This individual is no longer serving in the Air Force Reserve. He retired in 2014,” Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said in a statement to The New Yorker. Because he is a private citizen, she said, “the Air Force no longer has jurisdiction over him.”