Thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington DC on January 6, 2021. A jury has now found a 49-year-old former police officer guilty.
Around 800 to 1,200 people broke into the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and interrupted the joint session of both chambers of parliament.
(dpa) According to American media reports, a former police officer has been found guilty in connection with the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. According to the jury of the Washington trial, the 49-year-old former police officer is guilty of all six counts of participating in the Capitol attack, as reported by the Washington Post and CNN on Monday (local time).
The penalty will be determined at a later date. So there is no date for this yet. The ex-cop from the small town of Rocky Mount in the state of Virginia faced up to 20 years in prison, it said.
After an inciting speech by the ousted Republican President Donald Trump, his supporters stormed the seat of Congress in Washington last year. They wanted to prevent the confirmation of the election victory of the Democrat Joe Biden. The attack killed five people and injured dozens. The attack on the heart of American democracy shook the country.
The jury found that the former police officer had inter alia obstructed the official process of Congress, clashed with the police during a riot and tampered with evidence. He was also found guilty of trespassing and disorderly conduct at the Capitol. The officer and another Rocky Mount colleague involved were fired after the 2021 attack.
According to media reports, the public prosecutor’s office relied on surveillance videos of the Capitol, which showed how the man and his former police colleague stormed the building with other Trump supporters. Police bodycam footage also showed him, equipped with a gas mask and a four-foot wooden stick, standing in the way of security officers assigned to assist Capitol Police.