Capitol Riot Suspect, UCLA Activist, Arrested In Costa Mesa

COSTA MESA, CA — A Costa Mesa resident and UCLA student is under arrest for criminal conduct in connection with the riots on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on January 6, the FBI confirms.

Christian Alexander Secor, 22, was rousted from his home early Wednesday and was placed under arrest, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller tells Patch.

He is suspected of participating in the insurrection at the Capitol building that led to the evacuation of the senate and Vice President, court records show. Secor is charged on suspicion of resisting officers, violent entry onto restricted grounds, civil disorder, and obstructing an official proceeding. He will be held without bail, according to District of Columbia Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui.

At least 11 individual tipsters identified Secor on the Senate chamber floor and sitting in the Chair of the Presiding Officer on the upper tier of the two-tiered dais at the head of the Senate Chamber, according to the criminal complaint.

He allegedly was caught on video sitting in the seat is normally occupied by the Vice President of the United States and the President of the Senate, the complaint says.

Tipsters also shared a video of Secor wearing a red "Make America Great Again" hat and carrying a large blue "America First" flag, easily identifiable in a video shared from the day by The New Yorker. At the scene of the insurrection, where more than five lost their lives, Secor was seen sitting in Vice President Pence's seat, in the hallways of the Senate, marching with the mob in the Senate gallery, and pushing through a doorway blocked by "no less than three police officers," the complaint says.

Multiple informants disclosed information about the controversial activist and UCLA student.

Secor was positively identified as the president/founder of a campus organization named "America First Bruins." According to the FBI, Secor also goes by the pseudonym "Scuffed Elliot Rodger."

Students at UCLA shared with the FBI that Secor is a "self-described fascist," and that he posted threads online and "openly called for America to become a whites-only nation," the FBI reported.

Bill Kisliuk, UCLA's director of media relations, did not comment specifically about Secor.

"What I can tell you is that UCLA believes the Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol was an attack on our democracy," he said. "As an institution, UCLA is committed to mutual respect, making decisions based on evidence and using rational debate and not physical violence."

A fellow student identified Secor as a UCLA undergrad and founder of America First Bruins, a conservative campus organization, according to the FBI's affadavit.

Other people who allegedly knew him supplied photos of the defendant participating at a rally in Huntington Beach and told agents that he has written social media posts that America should become a "whites-only" nation, according to the complaint.

Following the insurrection in Washington, Secor returned to his mother's home in Costa Mesa, "got rid of his phone and car, and bragged that he would not be caught for his involvement at the U.S. Capitol," the complaint reads.

The FBI conducted thorough surveillance of Secor prior to his arrest.

Read also: Orange County Activist Arrested By FBI In Capitol Insurrection

City News Service contributed to this report.