Man charged with assaulting police officer during Capitol riot

Federal prosecutors have charged a man with assaulting a police officer during the Capitol riot, accusing him of trying to crush an officer who was pinned by a mob as it tried to break into the building.

Patrick Edward McCaughey III was arrested and charged on Tuesday with assault, disorder, entering a restricted area and violent entry or disorderly conduct, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday.

Charging documents filed in federal court allege that McCaughey was one of the rioters attacking Officer Daniel Hodges in a viral video first reported by CNN that shows Hodges screaming in pain as he’s crushed by a surging mob.

“The vicious attack on Officer Hodges was abhorrent and quintessentially un-American,” Michael Sherwin, the acting U.S. attorney for D.C., said in a statement. “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.”

McCaughey is being accused of using a police riot shield to push against Hodges as he was pinned. Another rioter in the video can be seen trying to rip Hodges’s gas mask off.

McCaughey is scheduled to make his first court appearance in federal court in White Plains, N.Y., on Wednesday afternoon. It’s unclear if he has retained an attorney.

Sherwin’s office has charged dozens of people in the two weeks since the riot at the Capitol, which resulted in the death of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick and several others.

Federal law enforcement is still looking for suspects who may have been responsible for the death of Sicknick following violent confrontations with rioters.