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 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 Jan. 6 attack. The image — showing a suspect unleashing an orange chemical spray while wearing a blue plaid shirt, a helmet and wearing a gas mask — was recently featured in a presentation by U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves and 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 earlier this month, ahead of the third anniversary of the attack. "Hopefully we'll see some movement on him soon."
Get top local stories in Connecticut delivered to you every morning. >Sign up for NBC Connecticut's News Headlines newsletter.
Oliva-Lopez's arrest comes a day after the FBI arrested a Louisiana man who is now charged with attacking law enforcement at the Capitol's lower west tunnel.
Read the full story on NBCNews.com here.
