Connecticut man charged in attack on Capitol officer

WASHINGTON — A Connecticut man has been charged in the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol after authorities said he was identified in video that shows an officer crying out in pain while being pinned against a door frame by rioters.

Patrick Edward McCaughey was arrested Tuesday in South Salem, N.Y., and charged with assaulting or resisting government officers, and riot as well as Capitol trespassing-related charges in the violent confrontation with District of Columbia police officer Daniel Hodges.

Information about McCaughey’s attorney was not immediately available.

In a widely shared video of the violence against police that day, charging papers say McCaughey appears to be the individual in a tan jacket seen thrusting a looted police riot shield against Hodges while the crowd he is with chants “Heave-ho” and presses its weight against it. The video shows a phalanx of police behind Hodges trying to push back the mob.

McCaughey engaged with Hodges shortly before the crowd sprayed tear-gas-like substances and ripped off the officer’s gas mask to expose his bloodied mouth, charging papers said.

“Come on man, you are going to get squished just go home,” a voice is heard consistent with McCaughey’s tone and volume, an FBI affidavit said.

“Just go home … . Don’t try and use that stick on me, boy,” McCaughey is identified as saying as he continued to push against Hodges, who held a police baton, the FBI said.

For the next 45 seconds, Hodges repeatedly cried out in pain while a crowd of dozens of rioters continued to push, chant and wave President Donald Trump and U.S. flags, charging papers said.

Eventually, McCaughey appeared to reset the officer’s dislodged helmet and urged an officer behind him to let Hodges fall back, charging papers said.

“Hey you, this guy isn’t doing too well,” McCaughey said, according to the FBI, before repeating, “Let this guy through, he’s hurt, he’s hurt, let him back.”

But McCaughey kept hold of the riot shield, even as the crowd behind him withdrew and, in the video “begins striking other uniformed law enforcement officers with the shield,” the affidavit said.

McCaughey was charged after a witness claimed to identify him with 100% certainty based on photographs, including a lookout notice sent by D.C. police Jan. 11, the FBI said.

The witness shared images McCaughey sent to mutual friends, including a selfie taken on Capitol scaffolding, that aligned with Capitol surveillance and other video recorded Jan. 6., the FBI said.

In announcing McCaughey’s arrest with the FBI’s Washington Field Office, Michael Sherwin, acting U.S. attorney for D.C., called the attack on Hodges “abhorrent and quintessentially un-American” and an assault on “the Capitol and the rule of law itself.”

Sherwin added: “It is my pledge that anyone involved in violent attacks on law enforcement at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Hodges, 32, has returned to duty.

“The zealotry of these people is absolutely unreal,” Hodges previously said. “I didn’t want to be the guy who starts shooting, because I knew they had guns — we had been seizing guns all day.”

“And the only reason I could think of that they weren’t shooting us was they were waiting for us to shoot first,” Hodges said. “And if it became a firefight between a couple hundred officers and a couple thousand demonstrators, we would have lost.”

On Wednesday, a Florida man wanted in the Capitol siege was arrested in northern Virginia while headed back to D.C., according to the FBI’s Washington Field Office and a law enforcement document.

Samuel Camargo, 26, of Broward County, Fla., was detained by police in Alexandria, Va., on four federal counts related to alleged actions during the mob attack Jan. 6, the FBI said in a statement.

It’s unclear why Camargo was headed back to Washington on Inauguration Day. An arrest warrant was issued for him Friday.