Ridgefield Man Charged With Assaulting Officer In D.C. Riot: FBI

RIDGEFIELD, CT – A Ridgefield man was charged Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia with assaulting an officer during the breach of the U.S. Capitol grounds on Jan. 6.

Patrick Edward McCaughey III, 23, was charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers or employees; restricted building or grounds; civil disorder; and violent entry or disorderly conduct.

McCaughey traveled to Washington, D.C., and "knowingly and willfully joined a crowd of individuals who forcibly entered the grounds of the United States Capitol and impeded, disrupted, and disturbed the orderly conduct of business by the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate," according to the complaint.

As alleged in the charging documents, on Jan. 6, a video posted to YouTube captured a large group of rioters attempting to break through the line of uniformed law enforcement officers who were in place to prevent rioters from entering the lower west terrace door of the U.S. Capitol. In the front line of rioters, a man prosecutors identify as McCaughey can be seen using a clear police riot shield to physically push against the left side of the body of an officer, identified as D.C. Metro Police Officer Daniel Hodges. The officer was pinned between the clear police riot shield being held by McCaughey and the lower west terrace door.

The complainant named in the court documents is an unidentified U.S. Marshal currently assigned to the FBI Washington Field Office's District of Columbia Violent Crime's Task Force.

"The officer appeared to be loudly crying out in pain. 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 alleges. "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."

The Metro Police circulated photos of a man prosecutors say is McCaughey on social media after the Jan. 6 riot. According to the affidavit, the Ridgefield man was identified by two anonymous tipsters who saw the photos circulated by Metro.

Protests in Washington, D.C. were sparked earlier in the day as the U.S. Congress moved to count the Electoral College votes from the November presidential election. The protests escalated into violence as far right supporters of President Donald Trump stormed barricades and forced their way into the Capitol building, disrupting the process. The mayhem overwhelmed Capitol Police, who evacuated members of Congress as violence escalated.

The NY Daily News is reporting that McCaughey was apprehended Tuesday night in South Salem, NY.

"The vicious attack on Officer Hodges was abhorrent and quintessentially un-American," said Acting U.S. Attorney Michael R. Sherwin. "It is my pledge that anyone involved in violent attacks on law enforcement at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. McCaughey's alleged actions were an assault on Officer Hodges, the Capitol, and the rule of law itself."

Interviewed last week after the video of him being crushed in a doorway by insurrectionists went viral, Hodges told NBC Washington that, "If it wasn't my job I would have done that for free. It was absolutely my pleasure to crush a white nationalist insurrection," ... and we'll do it as many times as it takes."

McCaughey is one of more than 100 charged so far in connection with the violence that resulted in five deaths. He will be presented in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Wednesday, before appearing in Washington D.C.