Geoffrey Sills, who officials say used a pole and a strobe light to assault multiple police officers during the Jan. 6 siege on the U.S. Capitol, has been arrested and is now facing multiple federal criminal charges.
Sills, 30, of Mechanicsville, Va., is charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees; witness tampering; civil disorder; physical violence with a deadly or dangerous weapons; and other offenses, the Justice Department announced Thursday. Sills was arrested on June 18.
According to court documents, the announcement says, Sills was seen on camera “repeatedly assaulting multiple law enforcement officers.” Federal officials say Sills threw “multiple objects, including pole-like objects, at law enforcement officers” who were trying to keep the crowd of Donald Trump supporters from advancing on the capitol building.
Sills apparently shared on social media his own footage that he recorded as he entered one of the tunnels under the capitol building. There, he continued his assault on capitol police officers, federal documents say.
“While inside [the tunnel], he repeatedly struck multiple police officers where with an extended baton while using a strobe light, apparently to try to disorient the officers,” the Justice Department said of Sills in a press release.
Although Sills was pushed to the back of the crowd at times, he repeatedly made his way back to the front, the press release added.
Read the indictment of Sills and others below.
[Images via FBI]
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