A Connecticut man has been apprehended after a viral video showed him assaulting an officer with a riot shield during the U.S. Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6.
NPR reports that Patrick Edward McCaughey III was arrested on Tuesday and charged with assaulting an officer, civil disorder, entering restricted grounds, and disorderly conduct. The Department of Justice said in a press release that he would be presented in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Wednesday.
According to prosecutors, McCaughey held D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges in a door in the Capitol building as other rioters attempted to gain entry. In the footage, Hodges can be seen crushed in the doorway, as he cries out and bleeds from the mouth.
“Even after days of seeing so many shocking and horrific scenes from the siege on the U.S. Capitol, the savage beating of [Officer Hodges] stands out for the perpetrator's blatant disregard for human life,” said Steven D'Antuono, the assistant director in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office. “Patrick McCaughey's actions were violent, barbaric, and completely out of control.”
The man who is allegedly McCaughey uses a clear police riot shield to pin Hodges in the door. As he presses against Hodges, he tells the officer to “go home” and warns Hodges that he’s “going to get squished,” per the affidavit.
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“As the officer was being pinned to the door by McCaughey, a separate rioter was violently ripping off the officer’s gas mask, exposing the officer’s bloodied mouth,” the affidavit states. “As McCaughey was using the riot shield to push against the officer, numerous other rioters behind and around McCaughey appeared to add to the weight against the officer.”
Authorities identified McCaughey from a tip from someone who said they had known him since he was a child, and from his appearance and voice in several videos.
Hodges, who has been with the D.C. police force for six years, said he didn’t break any bones or have any internal bleeding after the incident. “If it wasn't my job, I would have done that for free,” he told a local NBC affiliate. “It was absolutely my pleasure to crush a white nationalist insurrection, and I'm glad I was in a position to be able to help. We'll do it as many times as it takes.”
The FBI arrested another man, 35-year-old Samuel Fisher—also known as Brad Holiday—in New York on Wednesday. He’s facing federal charges out of D.C., including disorderly conduct on restricted grounds and unlawful entry on restricted grounds.
