Dating app leads to man’s guilty plea in Jan. 6 assault

A Houston man who whipped and peppersprayed police officers during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, and then bragged about it on a dating app, pleaded guilty Wednesday to assault, according to the U.S Department of Justice.

Andrew Quentin Taake, 32, will be sentenced in March, according to the department. He entered his guilty plea in the Washington, D.C., court overseen by U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols.

Taake, who owns a pressure washing company, was charged with assault, resisting or impeding officers and obstruction of an official proceeding in July 2021.

According to prosecutors, Taake entered the grounds of the Capitol in the early stages of the riot, and used bear spray on officers from the Metropolitan Police Department as they tried to stop people from entering the building. Later, as more officers arrived, Taake attacked a group of officers with a “whip-like weapon,” according to the Justice Department.

Taake soon entered the Capitol building and was spotted brandishing the same weapon.

Authorities tied Taake to the insurrection in part by messages he sent on Bumble, the dating app, according to prosecutors. He messaged a person on Jan. 6, saying he had been “pepper sprayed, tear gassed, had flash bangs thrown at me, and hit with batons for peacefully standing there,” and then sent a photo of himself to the person he was chatting.

The person he was chatting sent his messages to the FBI on Jan. 9.

In interviews with HuffPost reporter Ryan Reilly, the woman who turned in Taake said she sought out people on the dating app she believed took part in the riot and ended up reporting three people.

The FBI included pictures of Taake’s Bumble profile and his chats with the woman in charging documents.

More than 1,230 peoples have been charged for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including more than 440 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, according to the justice department.

Other people charged with assaulting officers during the riot have been sentenced to as little as seven months and as much as 14 years in prison, according to a list compiled by Newsweek.