National Post (National Edition)
Extremists were organized in siege, prosecutors say
Filings detail first moments of Jan. 6 attack
WASHINGTON • A police riot shield used to break a window, then a door kicked open from the inside — new court documents detail the first moments of the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol that left five people dead and more than 100 police officers injured.
A criminal complaint against two Missouri brothers and a detention memo against a prominent member of the Proud Boys help explain how the government believes one segment of a mob overran a small, poorly-defended line of Capitol Police officers. In these and other filings, prosecutors are tracing the actions of possible key instigators in the storming of the Capitol, including members of the Proud Boys — a far-right nationalist and nativist group with a history of violence — and other right-wing extremist groups.
According to prosecutors, citing both surveillance video and social media, Proud Boy Dominic Pezzola was one of the first to lead the charge both outside and inside the Capitol, helping overwhelm police defences after stealing an officer's riot shield.
Starting at about 1 p.m., Pezzola, known as “Spaz,” was among the first protesters to charge and overwhelm a line of police behind a pedestrian gate on the west front Capitol grounds, prosecutors said. The crowd advanced toward a second set of waist-high metal barricades at the Capitol's west plaza, where Pezzola was flanked by an unidentified man in an American flag bandana who dragged a piece of the fence away, leaving police unprotected and helping thousands follow onto the Capitol grounds, prosecutors said. Pezzola next was among the first to reach another police line at the base of the Capitol, prosecutors said.
When a scuffle broke out after a member of the mob was hit by a projectile, possibly fired by police, Pezzola can be seen on video pulling out a riot shield, according to prosecutors. He is then seen in images using the shield to break a building window at 2:13 p.m., according to court documents.
“Pezzola was not the only person trying to break windows and forcibly enter the Capitol at that time, but he appears … first to breach a window so successfully that he and other rioters could enter the Capitol through it,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Erik Kenerson wrote. “The defendant's actions show planning, determination, and co-ordination.”
Prosecutors say a pair of brothers from Montana, Joshua Calvin Hughes and Jerod Wade Hughes, followed Pezzola into the window and then helped kick down a door from the inside, giving more rioters access.
The Hughes brothers were charged late Thursday with felonies related to destruction of property, obstructing law enforcement and disrupting a government proceeding. They could not be immediately reached for comment.
Pezzola faces similar charges. Prosecutors said Friday that there was also evidence that he assaulted police and stole the riot shield, two additional crimes of violence.
According to prosecutors, members of the Proud Boys used walkie-talkie-style communication devices to co-ordinate during the attack. On Pezzola's computer, Kenerson said, FBI agents found information on making homemade firearms, poisons and explosives.
Once inside the Capitol, authorities say Pezzola and the Hughes brothers engaged in a confrontation with Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman at the foot of a staircase, according to an FBI agent's affidavit, “advancing … in a menacing manner.” While Doug Jensen, 41, of Des Moines is identified as the “primary aggressor,” the Hughes brothers “followed immediately” behind him, the agent wrote. Pezzola, according to prosecutors, was also part of the group.
Jensen, a self-described believer in the far-right Q-Anon conspiracy theory, was arrested the weekend after the riot.
Goodman lured the rioters away from the Senate Chamber by lightly pushing Jensen, a tactical manoeuvre that experts say pre-empted a violent confrontation and may have saved lives. He has since been made acting deputy sergeant-at-arms, and he escorted Vice-President Kamala Harris on Inauguration Day.
Internal and congressional investigations are ongoing into the failure to fend off the rioters, who forced lawmakers to hide in corners of the building as the angry mob called for their deaths. In the court filings, authorities say police were outnumbered by rioters at every turn. While Goodman called for backup and was joined by other officers in an upstairs atrium, the FBI said they still lacked the manpower to attempt any arrests.
“So instead they used their training to try and de-escalate the situation by talking with individuals in an attempt to calm them down” an agent wrote in an affidavit. The crowd refused, shouting “this is our house,” “this is our America,” and “we're here for the corrupt government.”
When one rioter slammed a fire extinguisher on the floor, sending up a cloud of smoke, the agent says the shock helped quell the crowd's anger, and they dispersed. But the Hughes brothers did not leave the building, prosecutors say, and they then made their way onto the Senate floor, where they sat in lawmakers' chairs and rifled through their desks.
Meanwhile, Kenerson wrote, Pezzola filmed himself smoking a “victory cigar” in another part of the building.