Spring man receives 30 months for riot

He was area’s first to be charged in the Jan. 6 incursion

A Spring man who was the first Houston-area resident to be arrested and charged with crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, pleaded guilty Monday to one of the felony charges filed against him.

Joshua Lollar, 41, was sentenced to 2½ years in federal prison after pleading guilty to obstruction of an official proceeding and began serving his sentence immediately, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

Lollar drove from Spring to a hotel in Arlington, Va., in the days before the insurrection. He brought a AR-15 with him, along with body armor and a gas mask, according to prosecutors. During his cross-country road trip he texted a friend, “I’m about to head to D.C. We are going to try and save the country.”

He wore the gas mask and body armor and a “Keep America Great” hat to then-President Donald Trump’s rally on the Capitol grounds Jan. 6, and he was among those who entered the building “with the purpose of disrupting then-Vice President Pence’s certification of the 2020 election,” according to prosecutors.

Lollar fought with police officers inside the Capitol rotunda and was pepper-sprayed during the fight. After the riot ended, he bragged on social media about being “gassed.” Lollar also recorded himself resisting police officers as they tried to push crowds out of the rotunda. Police body cameras recorded him throwing his body against riot shields as police tried to clear the building.

Lollar was charged Jan. 15, 2021, in the early days of the investigation that has since produced more than 1,000 arrests. He was initially charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building without lawful authority and impeding or disrupting official functions; obstructing or impeding law enforcement officer during civil disorder and obstruction federally protected functions; and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.

Lollar was turned in to the FBI by one of his Facebook friends who had seen some of the posts he made during the riot. In the days following the insurrection, Lollar’s sister appeared to urge him to delete his posts because of the possibility of federal prosecution.

At least 74 Texans have been charged with crime related to the insurrection.

As of May 5, 574 of the 1,003 people charged in connection to the Capitol attack had pleaded guilty to at least one charge. Another 94 had been convicted following trials, according to the Justice Department. Nearly 300 people have been sentenced to serve time in federal prison.