(AP) – A Pennsylvania man has been charged after he allegedly clashed with police officers during separate incidents at the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
Dustin Sargent, 30, of Kunkletown, Pennsylvania, was arrested on Wednesday on charges including assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers as well as obstruction of an official proceeding.
Sargent was seen during the riot pushing one officer and grabbing another “in an apparent attempt to physically force these officers and others away from the doors to allow other rioters into the Capitol,” authorities wrote in court papers. In a video, he was heard telling an officer who was trying to keep rioters out of the House Chamber: “You let us in there, you deserve a medal of honor,” authorities say.
Investigators say that records received from Facebook show that two days before the riot, Sargent was asked in a message how he thought the “protest” was going to go. Authorities say Sargent responded that he wanted his wife to be able to come to the hospital if is going to die, and wrote that people in government “may be publicly hung.”
An email seeking comment was sent to an attorney who represented Sargent during his initial court appearance in Pennsylvania.
Charges brought against rioters have ranged from misdemeanor offenses for those who entered the Capitol illegally but didn’t cause damage or assault any officers to felony seditious conspiracy for members of far-right extremist groups accused of plotting to stop the peaceful transfer of presidential power.
As of early last month, at least 538 cases had been resolved through guilty pleas, trials, dismissals or the defendant’s death, according to an Associated Press review of court records.
Associated Press reporter Alanna Durkin Richer contributed to this report from Boston.