A Kentucky man sprayed police officers with a fire extinguisher, stole a police-issued riot helmet, and forcefully broke into the Republican Conference Room during the Jan. 6 siege on the U.S. Capitol, the Department of Justice alleges.
Nicholas James Brockhoff, a 20-year-old from Covington, is facing a slew of federal criminal charges, including assaulting, resisting or impeding police officers; using of a deadly or dangerous weapon; and obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder, among others.
According to the criminal complaint unsealed Thursday in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., Brockhoff climbed on top of the scaffolding that was set up on the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol where he was able to get an aerial view of the law enforcement officers below as they attempted to quell the pro-Donald Trump mob. From that perch, Brockhoff allegedly sprayed the contents of a fire extinguisher at the officers below. The foamy discharge “obstruct[ed] [the officers’] ability to see” and “caused the dispersing of law enforcement officers and impeded law enforcement officers from performing official duties.”
An FBI affidavit alleges that surveillance footage then shows Brockhoff entering the Capitol through one of several broken windows where he stole a riot helmet that had been worn by a member of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).
A verbal exchange was allegedly recorded between Brockhoff and MPD officers who confronted him about the riot helmet, “Now you’re locked up. Now you’re locked up. Turn around. Get him [BROCKHOFF] out. You’re going to come out with an MPD helmet?” the officer allegedly said.
Brockhoff allegedly responded by saying that he found the helmet “on the ground.”
Several photographs were included in the filing that allegedly show Brockhoff walking through the Capitol building wearing the MPD riot helmet.
Nicholas Brockhoff allegedly wearing MPC helmet
Nicholas Brockhoff allegedly wearing MPC helmet
According to the FBI, in another exchange with officers that was caught on a body camera, Brockhoff confirmed his first and last names to an officer and also told officers that he injured his hand on broken glass while climbing through a window to enter the Capitol building.
Once inside the Capitol, prosecutors say Brock forced his way into one of the GOP’s regular meeting places.
“Further review of media platforms by an FBI analyst revealed a video Getty Images Inc. which shows BROCKHOFF—wearing the same MPD helmet seen in Figure Six—making a forced entry into room ‘ST6M,’ later identified as a Republican Conference Room, of the U.S. Capitol,” the charging document stated.
Brockhoff was scheduled to make his first court appearance Thursday before a judge in the Western District of Tennessee. He is one of more than a dozen Kentucky residents to be charged in connection with the Jan. 6 siege on the U.S. Capitol.
Read the charging documents below.
[image via charging documents/video via FBI]