Proud Boy from Olathe led chants and wielded ax handle inside Capitol at Jan. 6 riot
A man in tactical gear leading chants and wielding an ax handle inside the Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection is a Proud Boy from the Kansas City area, watchdogs monitoring the movement and his former high school classmates say.
Billy Chrestman of Olathe was among the throng of Trump supporters who invaded the Capitol, they say, pointing to numerous videos taken during the riot. The man in those videos, they confirm, is the same man whose now-deleted Facebook posts identified him as a Kansas City Proud Boy.
Many of them have sent the information to the FBI and posted it on social media.
Chrestman, 47, has not been arrested or charged in connection with the riot, nor have authorities publicly confirmed that he is the man in the videos.
The Star has spoken to Chrestman on the phone three times since Jan. 24. He repeatedly responded, “I’ve got no comment at this time” when asked about the rapidly spreading chatter on Twitter identifying him as the man at the Capitol.
He also declined to say whether he was involved with the Proud Boys.
“I have no comment, ma’am, on anything,” he said on Jan. 26. “I appreciate you asking my side, even though I can’t comment. Thank you very much. You have a great day, ma’am.”
The Proud Boys is a far-right group of all-male, self-described “Western chauvinists” known for street-level violence and confrontations with anti-fascists at protests. Founded in 2016, the group received national attention in September when, during the first presidential debate, President Donald Trump was asked if he was willing to condemn “white supremacists and militia groups.” Trump responded that the Proud Boys should “stand back and stand by.”
To date, federal prosecutors have charged more than 180 people from 39 states in connection with the Capitol attack, and authorities continue to make arrests as they identify more of those involved. Nearly a dozen Proud Boys have been among those charged, including Florida organizer Joseph Biggs. On Wednesday, prosecutors unsealed conspiracy indictments against Proud Boys Nicholas Ochs and Nicholas DeCarlo, alleging that they conspired to raise money to travel to Washington, D.C., from Hawaii and Texas. And last week, Proud Boys Dominic “Spaz” Pezzola and William Pepe of New York were indicted for conspiracy, civil disorder, unlawfully entering restricted buildings or grounds and disruptive conduct.
Pezzola also is charged with assaulting an officer. The 11-count indictment alleges that Pezzola stole a riot shield from police and used it to smash open a window of the Capitol. And in a court document arguing that he remain in jail pending trial, prosecutors said a search of his home turned up a thumb drive that contained information on how to make guns and explosives.
Chrestman attended Hueneme High School in Oxnard, California, and graduated in 1992, former classmates said. He even helped organize a class reunion in 2010, they said. Since then, it’s turned into an annual event for those who are still local.
They said Chrestman’s views started becoming more and more extreme in the past several years.
“He was latching onto conspiracies,” one former classmate told The Star on Tuesday. “A few (classmates) stayed in touch with him up until June or so of last year, when he got rid of his social media.”
When she saw the videos of the Capitol riot, she said, “I didn’t have a doubt in my mind it was Billy, and neither do the rest of my friends. We’ve all filed reports with the FBI online, and I also called my local office to make sure I actually spoke with a human.”
Another former classmate who is still in contact with Chrestman said he likes to talk about his beliefs.
“YouTube played a big part in his radicalization,” she said. “He’s rebellious in the sense that he would make people question their beliefs, like say, ‘Why is this fair if this isn’t fair?’
“He really thrives on being in debates with people. He enjoys seeing others get upset, invoking and manipulating their emotions.”
She said he was a member of a Kansas City Proud Boys group.
“He talked about our civil liberties being stripped from us little by little and fearing that the banking system will get shut down and we’re going to get thrown in FEMA camps and a socialist society,” she said. “Every day the sky was falling. Every day there was something to be afraid of. The majority of things that were predicted didn’t happen. And if they did happen, or something similar did, he was like, ‘See, I told you.’
“To the core, he’s not a bad person. He just has a lot of fears that this country’s being led in the wrong direction.”
Many videos taken during the Capitol invasion show a bearded man in tactical gear and wearing a cap emblazoned with the name of a Kansas City-based punk rock hot rod club.
The man — dubbed #Axehole on Twitter — can be seen marching to the Capitol with a large group of Proud Boys, including Biggs, who was arrested Jan. 20. The man later stirs up the crowd outside the Capitol as protesters angrily confront a large contingent of police.
“Whose country is this?” he yells. “Our country!” the crowd shouts. “Whose house is this?” he hollers. “Our house!” they scream. “Do you want your house back?” he asks. “Yes!”
Then he thrusts his hand upward and roars, “Take it!”
The Proud Boys are among the first wave to push through the barricades and storm the Capitol. The man then appears on videos taken inside the building, pumping the ax handle in the air and shouting, “Whose house?” The mob responds, “Our house!”
Soon after the Capitol videos began to circulate, stories spread on social media saying the man was Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes. But McInnes denied that he was at the Capitol or that he was the man in the videos. As “proof,” McInnes tweeted one of the watchdog posts that said the man was Chrestman.
Devin Burghart, executive director of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, told The Star that his organization started tracking Kansas City-area Proud Boys in 2018 when a man believed to be a member of the Proud Boys got in a fight outside a Westport bar after he was called a Nazi.
Burghart said his group has a photo in its files of Chrestman well before Jan. 6 wearing a cap and glasses that appear to be identical to those worn by the man in the Capitol videos.
The photo, which is among those now circulating on social media, was from Chrestman’s Facebook profile, Burghart and others said, but the feed has been deleted. The photo shows Chrestman’s face inside the Proud Boys logo along with a large “Q,” the symbol for QAnon.
Another photo making the rounds on Twitter, purported to be from Chrestman’s Facebook page, is of an AR-15 rifle. The rifle has the initials “POYB” on it, which stands for “Proud of Your Boy,” and also the Proud Boys’ slogan, “The West is the Best.” The person in the photo is wearing a black T-shirt with the initials “KC” inside a Proud Boys symbol.
“He’s a pretty big player,” Burghart said of Chrestman. “We were aware of him before the Capitol riot. The man who looks like him was also hanging with the rest of the Proud Boys at the Capitol protest and the group that led one of the charges inside.”
The cap the man was wearing had the words “Support Los Punk Rods” on it, referring to a nonprofit car club in Kansas City that holds an annual punk rock car show called “Greaserama” as a fundraiser for local charities.
Los Punk Rods board members confirmed last week that the cap was one that the group sells. And they said the cap Chrestman is wearing in his Facebook profile photo appears to be the same one seen on the Proud Boy in the Capitol riot videos.
Chrestman was not a member of the group, they said, and they want nothing to do with him.
“He’s not in the club now, he’s never been in the club, and he’s not associated with any of us at all,” said Los Punk Rods president Shawn Spiwak. “The current members in the club, not a single person knows who the guy is at all.
“We’re just a bunch of car guys building old cars, and we have a car show, and we have nothing to do with politics or any of that kind of stuff.”
He said the cap is sold at the annual “Greaserama” event.
“I would assume he was at our car show and got it there,” he said. “We’ve been selling those for a few years now.”
Spiwak said after the Capitol riot, he started getting photos, emails and text messages about Chrestman.
“Then the rest of the club was starting to talk about it, and they didn’t know who it was, either,” he said. “We thought, ‘Well, it’s no big deal.’ And it ended up being a bigger deal than we thought.”
Spiwak said the cap on the man at the Capitol and the cap in Chrestman’s Facebook photo “looks like the same one.”
“If he was wearing a Chiefs hat or a Royals hat, nobody would think anything of it,” Spiwak said. “But since it’s something weird and off the wall that nobody had heard of, then everybody’s curious about it.”
He said he hadn’t been contacted by any authorities investigating the insurrection.
“I didn’t even know that was a group that existed,” he said of the Proud Boys. “I’d never heard of it.”
The FBI’s Kansas City field office would not say whether it had received reports about Chrestman, the Proud Boys or any others involved in the Capital riot.
“We would not comment on any specific tips or any tips specific to any individual,” said spokeswoman Bridget Patton. “I couldn’t break down specifically what or if we received here. We’re not going to specifically comment on a number for our local area.”
The FBI said last week that with the public’s assistance, the investigation has identified more than 400 suspects in the breach of the Capitol and assault on police officers.
“We continue to seek the public’s help in identifying additional perpetrators of these heinous acts,” said Steven D’Antuono, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington field office, during a press call.
D’Antuono said the agency has received more than 200,000 digital media tips from the public. That outpouring of support, he said, “has been nothing short of remarkable.”
Chrestman’s LinkedIn page says he is a Journeyman Sheet Metal Worker at U.S. Engineering Co., a commercial contractor. Last June, watchdogs circulated information about Chrestman and encouraged followers to contact U.S. Engineering and demand that he be fired. They also circulated screenshots they said were of Chrestman’s Facebook posts, several of which promoted QAnon conspiracy theories.
Greg Chastain, business manager of Sheet Metal Workers’ Local Union No. 2, told The Star that Chrestman had been a member of the union but wasn’t any longer.
Rebecca David, chief people officer at U.S. Engineering, said Chrestman no longer worked there.
“He worked for us for about a year, like the end of 2018 to November 2019,” she said.
David said those tracking Chrestman first contacted the company months ago.
“I understand that,” she said. “They want accountability. And unfortunately, you can’t control what people are doing on their social media.”
At the time, she said, “I did take a glance at one of his profiles.”
“And I’m like, ‘Hmm. Glad he’s not with us anymore.’”
This story was originally published February 4, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
