On Friday, a North Carolina man pleaded guilty for calling in a bomb threat to the Library of Congress in D.C. in August of 2021.
Floyd Ray Roseberry, 52, of Grover, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to one charge of threats to use explosives during a standoff with police that lasted four hours near the Library of Congress, according to a news release from the Department of Justice.
According to court documents, on the morning of Aug. 19, 2021, U.S. Capitol Police and the FBI responded to a bomb threat from a black Chevrolet pick-up truck with no license plates that drove onto the sidewalk in front of the Library of Congress.
Roseberry was seen holding a cell phone and claimed he had a detonator. He also threw a stack of dollar bills at passersby and told them to call the police and tell them to evacuate the street, according to the release.
Authorities spent hours in a standoff, negotiating with Roseberry through handwritten notes on a dry-erase board he held up to his driver side window.
While inside the truck, Roseberry went live on Facebook. He stated that he was upset about the 2020 election results and demanded that President Biden resign from office.
According to the release, he claimed to have a bomb in the bed toolbox of the truck and was holding a small metal keg with a putty like substance on top and holding a trigger.
“If you want to shoot me and take the chance of blowing up two-and-a-half city blocks, ‘cause that toolbox is full … ammonium nitrate is full,” he said in a video.
The metal keg was later analyzed by the FBI and determined to have a small quantity of smokeless black powder at the bottom, but was incapable of detonating with the trigger.
After the 5-hour-long standoff that left the area in a practical standstill, Roseberry surrendered to police by crawling out of the truck, who finished searching his vehicle and determined the area to be safe after not finding an explosive by the end of that day.
During a brief hearing the next day, Roseberry told a judge he had gone two days without his medication, which included blood pressure medication and what he referred to as “mind medicine,” and he said he wasn’t sure he could follow the proceedings. The judge ordered a competency evaluation and to have him held in a D.C. jail until further proceedings.
Roseberry faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. He will return to court for further sentencing on June 15.
