A Lebanon County resident has been charged in connection with his alleged participation in the storming of the United States Capitol building on Jan. 6, according to a criminal complaint affidavit filed by the FBI.
Leo Brent Bozell IV, 41, of Palmyra, is charged with illegally entering a restricted building, disorderly conduct, and impeding an official session of Congress, according to the affidavit filed on Feb. 11 by Special Agent Lynda W. Thomas, one of the agents investigating the U.S. Capitol riot.
Witnesses quoted in the criminal complaint affidavit identified Bozell as a former basketball coach at Hershey Christian Academy, but in post on its Facebook page Wednesday, the Hummelstown-based school denied he was ever employed there and said he does not represent the school.
"As the HCA stated in two public statements issued in January in response to a flurry of speculation on Twitter and other social media sites, Mr. Bozell is not a member of the HCA’s staff or its board of directors, he is not an employee, and he is not a representative of the Academy," the post said. "Mr. Bozell most certainly is not a former coach of a girls’ basketball team at our school, given that we opened in 2019 and have no sports program of any kind."
In a Facebook post in early January, the school said it should not be associated with the "unacceptable behavior" one person engaged in while wearing the school's name and logo and condemned the "terrorizing" and "harassing" emails and messages it said it has received.
The school said it briefly closed its doors in January out of concern for the students' safety after speculation about Bozell's association with the school began circulating on social media last month.
According to the complaint filed by Thomas, Bozell is seen on the U.S. Senate floor and other locations inside the U.S. Capitol. He is wearing a red, white, and blue Hershey Christian Academy sweatshirt with the school's logo on the front in photos and video taken inside the Capitol building.
Thomas wrote that several witnesses came forward to identify Bozell, who is only seen for a short time in the footage observed by investigators. But, Thomas wrote, he is easily identifiable because of the sweatshirt he was wearing.
Three different witnesses contacted the FBI and identified Bozell as the man in the footage, the complaint states. Two of the witnesses said they were associated with the school, and identified Bozell as a former basketball coach there.
One witness, who claimed to be affiliated with the school, identified Bozell as a parent of children who go there. The witness provided a photo of Bozell and an unidentified minor holding a trophy on a basketball court. The witness said they were "100 percent positive" that Bozell was the man seen in footage in and around the Capitol and identified Bozell as the man in the photo provided.
Bozell is known by the nicknames "Zeek" or "Zeeker," the witness told investigators.
A second witness who claimed to be affiliated with the school also said Bozell goes by the nicknames "Zeek" or "Zeeker," the complaint states. The witness said Bozell is the parent of children at Hershey Christian Academy, and he and the witness have had several interactions there.
The witness positively identified Bozell as the man seen in several photos and video clips of rioters inside the Capitol building, according to the complaint.
The third witness is not affiliated with the school, but told investigators they began investigating Hershey Christian Academy after noticing the distinctive sweatshirt worn by Bozell in footage of the riot. The witness told investigators they researched photos and other publicly available information to identify Bozell as the man in the photos and as a former coach at the school, according to the complaint.
Investigators said Bozell is seen inside the Senate chambers in several photos and videos provided by various media outlets.
In a YouTube video, he is part of a group on the balcony of the Senate chambers. While he is not seen speaking in the video, the group he was standing with was chanting "treason" at the empty chamber floor, after members of the Senate were quickly rushed to safety when the building was breached.
Bozell is holding some kind of document in the video clip, investigators said in the complaint.
He is also seen in a third video found in a collection of Parler videos, the affidavit states. In that video, Bozell is seen chanting with another person on the balcony. He looks at the camera, then jumps over the balcony railing, Thomas wrote.
A video of Bozell walking out of the Capitol was found in the same collection, according to Thomas.
In a fourth video featuring footage taken from C-SPAN, Bozell is again seen on the Senate chamber balcony and walking around the Senate floor, Thomas said.
The FBI said it learned Bozell was a girls' basketball coach at Hershey Christian Academy until March 2020, when the program stopped practicing and playing games due to COVID-19.
The complaint affidavit does not indicate whether Bozell is in custody.
