Ex-Florida Cop Nathan Tuck, Charged in Capitol Riot, Joined Proud Boys While on Force

A Florida man arrested for allegedly breaking into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and hitting a police officer inside is himself a former cop who joined the Proud Boys whereas nonetheless serving on the power, chat logs tied to the far-right group reveal.

Nathan Tuck, 29, was arrested this week in reference to the storming of the Capitol, as was his father, Kevin. The elder Tuck was a police officer with the Windermere, Florida, police division till he resigned after his arrest on Thursday. Nathan Tuck, in the meantime, served as a police officer in Apopka, Florida, till September 2020. Following his arrest, the Apopka Police Division launched an announcement noting that Tuck was not on the power throughout the Capitol riot.

“Mr. Tuck was employed by the Apopka Police Division as a full-time police officer from March 19, 2018 to August 22, 2020,” the Apopka Police Division assertion learn. “Mr. Tuck resigned from the Apopka Police Division as a full-time police officer, however remained a reserve officer from August 22, 200 to September 18, 2020. Mr. Tuck was not employed by the Apopka Police Division on the time of the incident that led to his arrest.”

The youthful Tuck was, nevertheless, a police officer when he filed an utility to hitch the Proud Boys, based on chat logs reviewed by The Every day Beast. In that utility, in the summertime of 2019, Tuck indicated that he wished to hitch the far-right paramilitary group as a result of he hoped to beat up opponents on the left.

Tuck’s Proud Boy affiliations had been additionally reported by Creative Loafing: Tampa Bay shortly before the publication of this story.

On an utility that included his title, location, and {photograph}, Tuck wrote that he wished to hitch the Proud Boys “as a result of I see a rise in radical leftist ideology that’s starting to impact [sic] my life. I do not need to stand by whereas the very basis of America is being eroded by insane communists. And in addition I need to battle Antifa.”

Public information present that Nathan Tuck obtained a license to promote insurance coverage in Sept. 2020. When reached by cellphone on the Apopka, Florida, quantity related to that insurance coverage license, a person instructed The Every day Beast Friday that the quantity was not Tuck’s. Tuck didn’t return a request for remark at his enterprise e-mail deal with. Shortly after that e-mail was despatched, an individual utilizing Tuck’s quantity known as again and stayed on the road briefly, making fumbling noises as if battling the cellphone, earlier than hanging up once more.

Two minutes after that decision, an individual in a Proud Boys channel on Telegram pasted a screenshot of an Android log, exhibiting that this reporter had known as them. The individual requested readers to name the quantity, however Tuck himself didn’t return subsequent texts or emails.

Tuck’s lawyer declined to remark for this story. The Apopka Police Division didn’t instantly return The Every day Beast’s requests for touch upon his connection to the Proud Boys whereas on the power.

The 2019 utility was sufficient to permit Tuck right into a Telegram group for a central Florida’s “House Pressure” Proud Boys chapter. There, the then-cop described becoming a member of the Proud Boys after mainlining movies of anti-fascists on YouTube, which then led him to movies by Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes.

“Anybody else determine to hitch after seeing antifa movies on-line? Lol. I obtained myself in a rabbit gap on YouTube and watched 6 hours of movies of antifa attacking folks. I used to be like ‘Fuck this, I am becoming a member of the Proud Boys’ lol,” Tuck wrote. “I watched hours of antifa movies which then led me to Gavin movies. He spoke the reality. Which sparked my curiosity.”

Tuck additionally seems to have attended no less than one meetup with the group in a restaurant, posing with uniformed members. Quickly thereafter, he began sharing particulars for an additional meetup, later in July 2019, and expressed his remorse that he couldn’t attend a rally that includes McInnes and far-right character Milo Yiannopoulos.

“Something with Gavin and Milo is certain to be good,” Tuck wrote. “I’m positive there might be opposition.”

A member of the group responded with a rumor that anti-fascists would throw acid bombs to blind rally attendees. (The menace by no means materialized.)

Tuck’s connections to the Proud Boys have beforehand been speculated by web sleuths and reporters. The Orlando Sentinel noted Friday that Tuck and his father had been initially named in the identical indictment as Arthur Jackman, the vice chairman of the Proud Boys’ Orlando chapter, and Paul Rae, a Proud Boy from Seminole.

That indictment, sealed till lately, didn’t specify the Tucks’ relationship with Jackman or Rae. It did, nevertheless, illustrate the Proud Boys’ proximity to Florida cops. Jackman’s spouse is a police officer, as is Nathan Tuck’s. Neither girl has been accused of wrongdoing, and each of their departments have launched statements declaring them to be in good standing.

Twitter investigators, in the meantime, uploaded footage of Nathan Tuck exterior the Capitol with Proud Boys on Jan. 6, in addition to in Proud Boy uniform at a D.C. rally in December.

On Jan. 6, each Tuck males are accused of breaking into the Capitol. Whereas inside, Nathan Tuck allegedly hit an officer who tried to cease him, then rammed the officer together with his elbow, based on the Sentinel. The elder Tuck allegedly boasted of the day’s occasions in a household group chat. “We stormed the Capitol, fought the police,” Kevin Tuck allegedly wrote. “We took the flag. It’s our flag.”

In response to a statement by the Windermere Police Department, the place Kevin Tuck was an lively officer, he initially instructed supervisors that he had by no means entered the Capitol. His lawyer didn’t instantly return a request for remark.

Each Tucks have been launched pending their trial, on the situation that they not intimidate or intrude with folks concerned of their case, and that they don’t maintain weapons of their residence. A choose allowed Nathan Tuck’s spouse to maintain her service weapon at residence in a spot Tuck couldn’t attain.