Nevada man accused of assaulting officers at US Capitol riot
RENO, Nev. (AP) — A 34-year-old Nevada man has been arrested on multiple charges related to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, including assaulting law officers with what prosecutors say appeared to be a table leg with a protruding nail.
A U.S. magistrate in Reno ordered Josiah Kenyon of Winnemucca to remain jailed there Friday without bail until he's transported to Washington to face the charges.
They include engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds, civil disorder and assaulting, resisting or impeding officers with a dangerous weapon.
Kenyon was arrested Wednesday in Reno. He made his initial appearance Friday in U.S. District Court via a video-hookup along with his court-appointed federal public defender Lauren Gorman.
Gorman asserted Kenyon's constitutional rights to remain silent and have his attorney present. She didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment afterward.
A federal criminal complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia says photographs and video show Kenyon was among the rioters who entered the Capitol.
More than 670 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Jan. 6 riot. At least 140 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanor charges.
Kenyon was wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat and a “Jack Skellington” costume, based on a character from the movie, “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” the complaint said.
He tried to break a Capitol window with a flag staff and assaulted officers with several objects, including the table leg, it said.
The images show Kenyon strike numerous officers with the table leg, including one riot-gear clad officer in the head, it said.
“The protruding nail appears to become momentarily stuck between the top of the officer's face shield and helmet,” FBI special agent Matthew Lariccia wrote in a statement filed with the the complaint.
FBI agents interviewed three witnesses in the Washington metro area a week after the riot who believed Kenyon was the person in the photos, Larricia said.
Two others, including one relative of Kenyon, positively identified a photo in April, and in September the Washington Metro transit authority confirmed fare and bank records consistent with his presence at the uprising, he wrote.
Scott Sonner, The Associated Press