Eric Munchel biography: 13 things about US Capitol riot suspect from Nashville, Tennessee

Eric Gavelek Munchel was one of the Donald Trump supporters who breached the United States Capitol building in Washington, D.C., USA on January 6, 2021. They disrupted a joint session of Congress that was certifying the vote of the Electoral College and affirming Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.

Dubbed the Zip Tie Guy, Munchel carried plastic restraints when he joined the riot and there was also an item in a holster on his right hip and a cell phone mounted on his chest with the camera facing outward. Here are 13 more things about him:

1. He is the son of Laurence William Munchel and Lisa Marie Eisenhart. He is the younger brother of Alex Gavelek Munchel. (a)
2. He attended high school in Blue Ridge, Fannin County, Georgia, USA. (b)
3. In June 2013, officers from Sandy Springs Police Department in Sandy Springs, Fulton County, Georgia arrested him and Jeremy Martine on battery charges. (c)
4. In 2014, he was arrested on charges of marijuana possession and speeding in Fulton County. (d)
5. In 2015, he stood trial for misdemeanor battery charges in Fulton County. (e)
6. In 2017, he worked as a bartender at Doc Ford’s Rum Bar & Grille in Florida, USA. (e)
7. In March 2020, his mother booked a Southwest Airlines flight for him from Nashville, Tennessee, USA to Fort Myers. (d)
8. He worked at Kid Rock’s Big Ass Honky Tonk, a bar and concert venue on Broadway Avenue in Nashville. He was terminated in November 2020. (e)
9. When law-enforcement officers encountered him at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021, he was wearing black camouflage pants and a black holster containing what appeared to be a handgun. He was 30 years old when he joined the riot with his mother. He said the intentions of entering the U.S Capitol building were not to fight the police. He explained, “The point of getting inside the building is to show them that we can and we will.” (b) (d) (f) 
10. On January 10, 2021, FBI agents arrested him in Nashville. At 2:52 p.m. that day, he was booked into the Metro Davidson County Jail in Nashville. He was charged with one count of knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and one count of violent entry and disorderly conduct on the U.S. Capitol grounds. (g) (h) 
11. On January 22, 2021, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Frensley for the Middle District of Tennessee ordered his release after determining that he neither was a flight risk nor poses harm to the public. (i)
12. On January 24, 2021, U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell for the District of Columbia set aside Frensley’s order concerning his release pending a review. (i)
13. On February 17, 2021, a federal judge denied bond to him and his mother. (b)

(This is a developing story. More details will be added soon.)

SOURCES:

• a. Brooklyn Centre
• b. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
• c. Patch
• d. U.S. Department of Justice
• e. The Tennessean
• f. U.S. Department of Justice
• g. David County Sherriff’s Office
• h. WKRN
• i. Yahoo! News