Texas man arrested after Bumble Match said he witnessed the U.S. Capitol riot

• A Texas man was charged this week with raping the United States Capitol.
• The criminal complaint says someone who matched him on the Bumble dating app reported him.
• He is at least the second accused rioter to be arrested in part due to online dating.

A man in Texas was arrested after bragging about participating in a game on an online dating app about his involvement in the Jan. 6 uprising from “the very beginning.”

According to a July 21 criminal complaint, the Federal Bureau of Investigation received a tip on January 9 from someone who discussed Bumble with Andrew Quentin Taake. In an exchange, Taake described being sprayed with pepper: “I was the very first person to be sprayed that day, while staying there,” he said.

Federal authorities accuse him of doing much more than that. In the complaint, an FBI agent accuses him of assaulting police and storming the United States Capitol.

Indeed, images on social networks show Taake “using what appears to be a metal whip and pepper spray to attack law enforcement,” the complaint said.

FBI

Police body camera footage, reviewed by the FBI, also shows Taake using pepper spray on officers outside the United States Capitol. About 45 minutes later, Taake then emerged from the rioting crowd and is seen “hitting officers with a weapon that appears to be a whip”, according to the criminal complaint.

Security footage recorded near the US Senate then shows Taake parading outside the chamber “openly holding the whip-like weapon”, which the FBI said was likely a metal self-defense tool available online .

A device similar to the one featured in the complaint, currently available on Amazon, is sold as a car safety device intended to break windows in the event of an accident. The description states that it is “not a product designed to be used as a blunt striking weapon”.

Taake is identified in the indictment as the co-owner of Hi-Flow Houston, a household cleaning and pressure washing service. Federal agents obtained a search warrant for the phone number listed on the company’s Facebook page, matching it to the cell phone Taake used to book his flight to Washington, DC. Records show he is connected to cell phone sites that are believed to be in use from inside the Capitol building.

Public posts on Taake’s Facebook page, reviewed by Insider, show an apparent interest in right-wing politics. In a message, he responded to a news item concerning a caravan of migrants from Central America, alleging a terrorist infiltration, describing it as “an outright invasion”. In another, he says that Carter Page, a former adviser to former President Donald Trump who met Russian agents in the 2016 campaign, “should be on track to sue the DNC” over allegations of collusion.

Taake is accused of having tried to hinder the work of the police; enter a restricted building which contained the vice-president; and causing unrest during a session of Congress.

This is at least the second time that a man accused of participating in the riot has been reported by a Bumble match. In April, Robert Chapman of New York was arrested after telling a woman on the dating app, “I stormed the Capitol.”

Do you have a tip? Email this reporter: [email protected]