A North Carolina man who helped lead the first attack on police at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was found guilty of multiple felonies and misdemeanors on Friday, prosecutors said.

James Tate Grant, a 31-year-old Cary resident, and four other men who were found guilty Friday led the first breach of the restricted Capitol grounds and the initial attack on U.S. Capitol Police officers, according to FBI criminal complaints against the men.

“Their attack paved the way for thousands of rioters to storm the Capitol grounds,” the U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., said in a news release.

In a bench trial, U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb in Washington, D.C., found Grant guilty of civil disorder, assaulting an officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon and obstruction of an official proceeding — all felonies.

The weapon was a metal crowd control barrier, according to the FBI criminal complaint against Grant.

Cobb also found Grant guilty of committing an act of physical violence on the Capitol grounds and disorderly and disruptive conduct on the Capitol grounds, both misdemeanors.

Court records show he previously pleaded guilty to entering and remaining in certain rooms in the Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building, also misdemeanors.

Grant’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 13.

Grant could not be reached by The Charlotte Observer on Saturday. His lawyer, Peter Cooper of Washington, D.C., didn’t return a phone message from the Observer.

‘Waived the crowd forward’

On Jan. 6, Grant followed closely behind another defendant found guilty on Friday, 40-year-old Ryan Samsel of Bristol, Pennsylvania, according to court documents.

Grant wore a baseball cap with an insignia of a map of his home state and the words, “Drink Local,” The Charlotte Observer previously reported.

Others found guilty Friday for their roles in the attack were Paul Russell Johnson, 38, of Lanexa, Virginia; Stephen Chase Randolph, 34, of Harrodsburg, Kentucky; and Jason Benjamin Blythe, 28, of Fort Worth, Texas.

Samsel breached the first barricade onto restricted grounds and neared the Capitol via the Pennsylvania Walkway. That was the first breach of the restricted perimeter, the FBI said in the criminal complaints.

Just behind Samsel, Grant waived a crowd forward onto the restricted grounds, according to the FBI.

Samsel and Grant pushed and pulled on a second barricade as officers held it in place, the criminal complaint against Grant says. Grant, Samsel and other men lifted the metal bike rack barricade off the ground and shoved it into a line of USCP officers, according to the document.

‘Stormed the halls’ of Capitol building

The barricade hit an officer in the face with such force that it hurled the officer backward, slamming the officer’s head against a metal handrail and then stairs.

“The officer lost consciousness and suffered a concussion,” an FBI agent says in the complaint against Grant. “Another officer was driven several feet backward by the metal bike rack barricade until the back of their body ran into the stairwell and handrail behind them.”

Randolph jumped over the barricade and grabbed an officer, the agent said. Grant and Blythe “joined in the assault and attempted to pull Randolph and the officer toward a group of rioters,“ according to the complaint.

Other police forced Grant, Randolph and Blythe to release the officer and back away, the FBI agent wrote.

“By this point, the barricades were down, and the officers outmanned,” the complaint says. Rioters “quickly overwhelmed the police line, and the Capitol Police officers retreated backward toward the Capitol building.”

Grant then joined the crowd entering the Capitol building, and “each of the five men continued to fuel the riot,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s office news release.

Grant climbed through a broken window beside the Senate Wing door and into the Capitol building about 2:50 p.m. “He then stormed the halls with other rioters and was recorded with others” in the office of U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, the FBI said.

While on pre-trial release in December 2021, Grant was charged with driving while impaired after an encounter with Garner police in a restaurant parking lot, the Observer reported at the time.

Police said they found an AR-15 rifle and 60 rounds of .233-caliber ammunition in Grant’s car. When officers tried to arrest him, Grant tried to flee, court records show.

“He then dropped to the ground and stated something to the effect of ‘Just kill me now,’’’ federal prosecutors said in a court filing.

The outcome of the local case wasn’t available Saturday.

At least 1,230 people from all 50 states have been charged in connection with the Capitol breach, including at least 440 charged with the felony of assaulting or impeding law enforcement.