South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Pompano Beach man arrested on charges of civil disorder, assaulting police officers
A Pompano Beach man was arrested last month on charges of assaulting multiple police officers during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Kenneth Bonawitz, 57, also known as “#MagaMarlin,” arrived at the Capitol wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat, leather jacket and T-shirt that read “Getcha some freedom” and an 8-inch hunting knife sheathed on his hip, according to a criminal complaint filed by the Federal Bureau of Investigations in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
He now faces charges of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers, civil disorder, inflicting bodily injury on certain officers, and entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument.
A large crowd had already amassed on the Capitol’s West Front on Jan. 6, 2021, growing “hostile” toward police officers who were trying to keep people from advancing toward the building, where members of Congress were holding a Joint Session.
Bonawitz mounted the stage intended for the inauguration on the Capitol’s West Front about 2:30 p.m., according to the complaint. He proceeded to throw himself off the stage in the direction of a Capitol police officer and a sergeant, taking them to the ground.
Multiple officers pulled him off and confiscated his knife, the complaint states. He was then “escorted back into the crowd.
Shortly after, Bonawitz returned to the police line on the south side of the West Front, where he wrapped his arms around a female officer from behind, put his forearm under her face shield, then pulled upward on her neck, lifting her off the ground, the compaint says.
As soon as she managed to break free, Bonawitz swung his arm at a D.C Metropolitan police officer who had arrived to assist the other officers in holding off the rioters, according to the complaint. He struck the officer near his face and neck area, and the officer stumbled and fell to the ground.
Bonawitz then elbowed a third officer in the abdomen, according the complaint, while shoving his hand, holding his MAGA hat, into a fourth officer’s face shield.
He moved as if to headbutt the third officer, but the fourth officer shoved him away.
Bonawitz continued “flailing his arms and grabbing at multiple officers,” the complaint states, attempting to grab a yellow Gadsden flag from another rioter and swing it at the officer, who shoved him away.
His “assaultive conduct” ended when officers pushed him back into the crowd again and “deployed chemical agent to his face.”
FBI agents received a tip that Bonawitz was at the Capitol on Jan. 6, the complaint states. They interviewed him at his home in Pompano Beach, where he denied having physical confrontations with law enforcement.
Working with a “confidential human source,” FBI agents used clothing, tattoos and a Proud Boys meet-up poster sent around South Florida in May 2022 to identify the person who assaulted the officers as Bonawitz, the complaint states. A final piece of evidence came in the form of a Facebook video depicting a confrontation in Florida in which Bonawitz lifts up his shirt and says “Look, dude, I was there alright. This is compliments of the DC police.”
Bonawitz was arrested in South Florida but will be extradited to Washington D.C for his bond hearing.