Two Missouri men have been charged with allegedly assaulting law enforcement officers during the Jan. 6, 2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol, according to the Department of Justice.
Jared Luther Owens, 41, of Farmington, Missouri, and Jason William Wallis, 49, of St. Clair, Missouri, were charged in a criminal complaint filed in Washington, D.C., on Monday with obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder and assault on law enforcement with a deadly or dangerous weapon, both of which are felonies.
They were also charged with several misdemeanor counts, including entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds or in any of the Capitol buildings, engaging in physical violence in the Capitol grounds or any of the Capitol buildings, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in any of the Capitol buildings.
Mr. Owens was arrested on Oct. 27 in Missouri, and Mr. Wallis, a U.S. Army veteran, was arrested a day later on Oct. 28, the DOJ said.
According to prosecutors, both men attended the “Stop the Steal” rally near the Washington Monument on Jan. 6 before walking with “other protestors from the rally” to the restricted area on the northwest side of the U.S. Capitol building and entering the area.
Once in that restricted area, video footage captured the two “pursuing and screaming at U.S. Capitol Police Officers in riot gear as they retreated from the former positions to the east along the north side of the building,” prosecutors said.
“Eventually, the officers reached the concrete plaza at the northeast corner of the Capitol, with Owens and Wallis nearby. In another open-source video, Owens and Wallis are filmed walking among the officers, yelling and screaming and making statements such as ‘coming up the stairs with you there or not,’” prosecutors said.
‘Whose House? Our House!’
Both Mr. Wallis and Mr. Owens stood directly at the bike rack barricade, video footage showed, court documents state.“In an open-source video, Wallis is seen grabbing onto the barricade and, with the help of Owens, shoving the barricade into the line of officers, which caused one officer to sustain a fracture to her right hand and wrist,” prosecutors said.
“After the assault near the northeast corner, Wallis and Owens advanced toward the east front of the Capitol, with Owens leading a crowd of rioters in chanting, ‘Whose House? Our House!’ Wallis and Owens then tried unsuccessfully to breach the Capitol on the East side through the Senate Carriage Door,” court documents state.
Later, Mr. Owens was seen on video “assaulting a second officer,” inside the Capitol building, allegedly pushing the law enforcement officials up against a wall, prosecutors said. At this point, another officer handcuffed Mr. Owens and conducted a search, according to court documents.
During the search, police found that Mr. Owens was armed with a knife, court documents state.
The Epoch Times has contacted Mr. Owens’s attorney, Paul Vysotsky, for comment.
Mr. Wallis requested an attorney through the Federal Public Defender’s office in St. Louis but does not yet have one.
Both Mr. Owens’s and Mr. Wallis’s cases are being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Department of Justice National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.
More than 1,100 individuals have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes relating to the Jan. 6, 2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol, including more than 400 individuals who have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, according to the DOJ.
The investigation remains ongoing.
