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A Fontana man was arrested by the FBI on Wednesday for assaulting a police officer in the Jan.6 storming of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Trump.
Daniel Rodriguez, 38, was charged with injuring a DC Metropolitan Police officer with an electroshock weapon as crowds of Trump supporters forced their way into the building in an attempt to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.
In an unsealed eight-count indictment on Wednesday, a federal grand jury also charged Rodriguez with smashing a window on the Capitol and carrying deadly weapons – a flag pole and the electroshock weapon – during his illegal presence in the building.
Rodriguez is also accused of stealing one of the emergency evacuation hoods stored under the seats of members of Congress. Many lawmakers grabbed their hoods – designed to protect themselves in a terrorist attack – as they fled the House and Senate chambers moments before the crowds arrived.
Andrew Byrd, Rodriguez’s attorney, did not respond to an email seeking comment.
The police offer allegedly attacked by Rodriguez was identified in the indictment only as “MF,” but HuffPost reported that it was Mike Fanone.
Fanone was at the heart of one of the riot’s most violent clashes in a door tunnel where rioters shouting “heave-ho” attempted to force their way through a line of cops blocking the entrance. Another policeman screamed in pain as his face was smashed against the door.
Fanone, who then described the scene as medieval, told reporters he was shocked in the back of the neck with a stun gun about half a dozen times. As rioters ripped off his badge and grabbed his ammo magazines, Fanone struggled to hold his gun. He heard singing, “Kill him with his own gun.”
“It was the craziest thing I have ever seen,” he says.
Rodriguez is one of more than a dozen Californians among the more than 300 people charged with federal crimes in the Capitol Riot. Like several others, he attended pro-Trump rallies in Beverly Hills last year. FBI agents executed a search warrant last week at a home in the Summit neighborhood of Pacific Palisades, but the purpose of the raid was not immediately clear.
After an initial appearance Wednesday in federal court in Riverside, Rodriguez was scheduled to stay in jail overnight before a bail hearing on Thursday.
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