WASHINGTON — A Jan. 6 rioter dubbed "Blue Plaid Sprayer" and identified by online sleuths more than two years ago was arrested in Oregon on Tuesday and charged with assaulting law enforcement officers with chemical spray as they protected the U.S. Capitol.
Andy Steven Oliva-Lopez, the FBI says, is the man prominently featured in an image snapped by a Getty photographer that has been frequently used in news articles in the three years since the attack on Jan. 6, 2021. The image — showing a person unleashing an orange chemical spray while wearing a blue plaid shirt, a helmet and a gas mask — was recently featured in a presentation by U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Matthew Graves, and it was also included in an ad for Joe Biden's 2024 presidential campaign.
Online "sedition hunters" identified the man in 2021 and reported his information to the FBI. Until now, his case had been one of hundreds in which a suspect has been identified but not arrested. The statute of limitations expires in less than two years, in early 2026.
"We've had, for example, 'Blue Plaid Sprayer' — he's been identified for over, I believe, 700 days," one of the sleuths told NBC News this month, ahead of the third anniversary of the attack. "Hopefully we'll see some movement on him soon."
With the help of facial recognition, online sleuths were able to determine that "Blue Plaid Sprayer" attended a pro-Trump "American Lives Matter" rally at the Oregon State Capitol in September 2020. A Twitter account that appeared to be associated with him, “Primal American,” pushed out several pro-Trump messages.
"This will not be over," the account wrote on Nov. 7, 2020, reposting a Trump tweet in which the then-president falsely claimed he "WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!" The account continued boosting Trump's tweets in the lead-up to the Jan. 6 attack.
"Cross the rubicon, the legions are right behind you. #CivilWar2," the account posted in December 2020, boosting another Trump tweet. After the attack, on Jan. 7, 2021, the account retweeted a post from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.: "RT if you still have @realDonaldTrump’s back!"
The account also reposted a Tucker Carlson video promoting "Patriot Purge," a pseudo-documentary about Jan. 6 that was featured on Fox Nation before Carlson and Fox News parted ways last year.
The sleuths have kept track of him. Since the Jan. 6 attack, social media posts show, he has worked as a general contractor in the Portland area and regularly posted photos of the bathrooms, decks, driveways and fences he was working on. Photos of his adventures since the Jan. 6 attack — including a ski trip to Aspen, Colorado, last year — proved particularly annoying to sleuths who thought he should be held accountable for assaulting officers rather than brag about his vacations on his public Instagram account.
Oliva-Lopez was arrested a day after the FBI arrested a Louisiana man who is now charged with attacking law enforcement at the Capitol's lower west tunnel.
More than 1,200 rioters have been arrested since the Capitol attack, and prosecutors have secured about 900 convictions on charges from unlawful picketing to seditious conspiracy. The longest sentence, 22 years in federal prison, went to Enrique Tarrio, the former head of the far-right Proud Boys.
