Anderson man becomes 9th South Carolinian charged in Jan. 6 Capitol riot
Another South Carolinian has been charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, becoming the ninth state resident to face allegations of storming the federal building.
Anderson County’s Derek Cooper Gunby, 41, was formally charged and arraigned Tuesday morning in Greenville at the downtown federal courthouse.
The criminal charges against him were unsealed Tuesday, detailing charges that include violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.
Gunby was released on a $25,000 unsecured bond, an amount set by U.S. Magistrate Judge Kevin McDonald.
Charging documents in his case, based largely on photos and a video Gunby posted on his Facebook page, alleges he was a supporter of former President Donald Trump who went to the Capitol Jan. 6 because he wanted to stop Congress from certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s Nov. 3 election won.
The morning of Jan. 6, Gunby posted on his Facebook a photo of him and an associate riding the subway with the caption, “Up at Zero Dark Thirty to stop this steal,” according to an FBI statement of facts in his case.
Investigating FBI officials were tipped off about Gunby’s involvement after they received information Jan. 13 that the Anderson man posted photos and a video of the riot on Facebook, according to court documents.
Gunby’s Facebook page, since removed from public view, contained the words, “Hold The Line,” and said he was employed as a “Sleeper/Agent,” was a “Former Vice President/Member Board of Directors at the Fathers’ Rights Movement” and was a former satellite communications non-commissioned officer in the U.S. Army, the FBI document said.
On Jan. 5, Gunby posted a Facebook photo of himself in a car with the caption, “Halfway to the Capital,” according to charging documents.
The next day, Jan. 6, Gunby posted photos taken in front of the Washington Monument near where Trump was holding a rally to talk to his supporters, the document said. The monument is a short walk from the Capitol building.
At that rally, Trump spoke to thousands of his supporters in the wake of his election loss and repeated his false claim that Democrats stole the election. He called Biden’s victory, “an egregious assault on our liberty,” and urged the crowd to “fight.”
Trump was later impeached by the Democrat-controlled House but acquitted by the Senate for his involvement in the incident.
What Gunby’s charges outline
Moments after rioters breached the Capitol, law enforcement found surveillance footage showing someone who appears to be Gunby walking around a hallway, according to court documents. Inside, he talked on his phone and used it to take pictures.
“In all the photos of Derek Gunby, he appears to be wearing a frayed camouflage baseball cap, a military issued camouflage coat, and dark-frame glasses,” the FBI document said. He also wore an American flag bandana, the document said.
In a video Gunby livestreamed after the riot, he is heard saying, “They just tried to steal this election right in front of everybody’s face. And any of you, any of you, who are gonna sit there and look anybody in the face, and say that that didn’t happen, that this election fraud didn’t happen, that we’re making it up, that it’s unsubstantiated, you need to wake up,” the FBI document said.
The FBI also said that on Gunby’s livestream, he said, “So yeah we went, we were in front of the White House earlier this morning, and then going into the afternoon, everyone headed down to the National Mall towards the Capitol. And we all pretty much surrounded the Capitol.”
He continued to say, wrote the FBI, “We are at a point now in this county where they’re going to listen to us. They have to listen to us. Your congressional leaders are not afraid of you. They are more afraid of the Chinese Communist party. They’re more afraid of left wing media. And they are more afraid of ANTIFA and Black Lives Matter than they are of the American patriot, the American conservative, the American libertarian. The person who is on the right side of the Constitution.”
On Feb. 1, FBI agents interviewed Gunby at his Anderson home, where he admitted traveling to Washington to listen to Trump speak and later entered the Capitol, according to court documents. Gunby allegedly showed the FBI agent a video he took while inside.
Although Gunby’s hearing Tuesday was in South Carolina, all subsequent criminal proceedings against him will be held in Washington where the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Columbia has been tasked with handling virtually all Jan. 6 prosecutions.
More charged in Jan. 6 riot
More than 570 people from nearly all 50 states are facing charges arising from the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, where a pro-Trump mob broke through police ranks and stormed into the building, clearing the House and Senate chambers.
There, Congress was starting to certify Biden’s election.
Although Trump supporters filed some 60 lawsuits in battleground states after the election alleging fraud, most were tossed out of court for lack of evidence. The one that was allowed to proceed, in Pennsylvania, involved only a small number of votes and could not have affected the outcome of the November election.
Moreover, former Attorney General William Barr said a wide-ranging Department of Justice investigation after the election found no evidence of fraud that could have affected the election.
At least seven fatalities have been linked to the Capitol attack, including protesters, and some 140 police officers were injured, according to official and news accounts.
In all, nine South Carolinians have been charged with storming the Capitol.
So far, one South Carolinian has said in court documents he will plead guilty.
FBI documents also have accused Jimmy Giannakos, 47, of Lexington County, with being at the riot, but he has yet to be charged with any riot-related offenses. In June, Giannakos was sentenced to 28 months in federal prison for threatening a former federal prosecutor for statements she made about a leader of the Proud Boys, an extremist group that includes some members who have been charged in the riot.
Earlier this month, Andrew Hatley agreed to plead guilty to some of the charges against him in connection with the riot.
Hatley was initially charged with “uttering threatening, or abusive language, or engag(ing) in disorderly or disruptive conduct, at any place in the Grounds or in any of the Capitol Buildings with the intent to impede, disrupt, or disturb the orderly conduct of a session of Congress or either House of Congress.” Hatley’s plea hearing is scheduled for Sept. 14.
In July, a Hanahan couple, John Getsinger Jr. and Stacie Hargis-Getsinger, were arraigned in Charleston before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Gordon Baker.
Five other South Carolinians face charges in the Capitol riot. They are:
▪ Elias Irizarry, 19, a freshman at the Citadel military college in Charleston
▪ Elliott Bishai, 20, a York County man planning to enter the U.S. Army in the next few months
▪ William Norwood III, of Greer, who is charged with knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building without lawful authority, violent and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, obstruction of justice and theft of government property
▪ Nicholas Languerand, 26, of Little River, is charged with assaulting an officer using a deadly weapon, according to a review of charging documents
▪ George Tenney III, 34, of Anderson, is charged with interfering with a law enforcement officer during a civil disorder, obstruction of justice, knowingly entering a restricted building, disorderly conduct in a restricted building, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building and demonstrating in a Capitol building
This story was originally published August 10, 2021 at 11:26 AM.
