"It's a shock" says father of Tucson siblings accused of rioting at U.S. Capitol

"We saw a picture of my daughter and my son on the news, News 4, from a distance, but zoomed in with a circle on their faces. I was like, 'What?'" Robert Konold, 62, told the Arizona Daily Star Thursday evening.

"It's a shock," he said. "I'm just a deer in headlights at this point."

Rather than join a violent attempt to take over the U.S. Capitol, Robert Konold thought his son and daughter, both in their 20s, were "just going to go out there with everybody else and do a little peaceful protest, you know?" he said.

"I thought, 'Good, go support the president,'" he said, referring to then-President Donald Trump. "Everybody else was going," said Konold, 62. "Young people do that, you know, 'be a part of history' kind of deal."

Special agents with the FBI and members of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested Felicia Konold of Marana and Cory Konold of Tucson around 7 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 11, according to a statement from the FBI's office in Phoenix. They were taken into custody without incident. The FBI did not say where they are being held.

The FBI included photos of Felicia and Cory Konold as evidence they were at the forefront of rioters who overwhelmed police and forced their way into the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote.

They were charged with conspiracy, civil disorder, obstruction of an official proceeding, knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, according to a complaint filed Wednesday in federal court in Washington, D.C.

The FBI accused Felicia and Cory Konold of marching with a large group of Proud Boys, a far-right group that supported Trump, to the Capitol building. The Anti-defamation League describes the group as white supremacists, which group leaders have denied. The Southern Poverty Law Center labels the Proud Boys as a hate group.

"Neither of them, as far as I knew, had any affiliation with any group or anything," Robert Konold said.

Felicia Konold posted a video on social media, according to the FBI, and "celebrated that she had just been 'recruited'" into a Proud Boys chapter in Kansas City. She displayed a two-sided challenge coin that appeared to bear that chapter's markings, according to the complaint.

"I'm just wondering how she knew this person," her father said, referring to the Proud Boys. "How did she meet them?"

He said his relationship with Felicia became distant in recent years, particularly after she was involved in a car wreck last year that resulted in serious injuries and a DUI charge. "Ever since then, I haven't talked to her or heard from her or anything."

He said he would have known if Cory, whom he sees frequently and used to work with, had joined a group like the Proud Boys. "We're tight. He tells me everything," he said.

He did "not at all" expect that Cory, who he described as a "normal, average fricking kid" would get involved with a riot.

"He was more there, I think, at that point, to keep an eye on his sister. That's the only thing I can come up with," he said.

Felicia is the one who wanted to go and Cory was going to help with the driving, Robert Konold said.

"He was just going to drive with his sister because she was going to go regardless," he said. "He figured, 'hey, road trip, and we can both share driving.'"

He said he still suspects the riots were not caused by Trump supporters. 

"It couldn't have been Trump guys," he said. "I'm thinking it could've been more antifa or you know Democrats wanting to make Trump look bad or something," he said. "No normal Republican would go nuts."

The FBI’s assistant director in charge of the FBI Washington field office, Steven D’Antuono, said in a Jan. 8 call with reporters that there was “no indication” antifa activists were involved in the Capitol riot.