The owner of a Long Island funeral home was charged Wednesday with spraying an insecticide at police officers guarding the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The man, Peter G. Moloney, 58, was the latest rioter arrested in the Justice Department’s extensive investigation into the mob attack. He was also charged with assaulting members of the news media outside the Capitol, according to indictment documents unsealed by the Federal District Court in Washington.
Prosecutors say that Mr. Moloney of Bayport, NY, showed up at the Capitol wearing a bike helmet and goggles, carrying a canister of Black Flag Wasp, Hornet, and Yellow Jacket Killer. After approaching a line of officers lined up behind metal barricades on the west side of the building, prosecutors said, he sprayed some of them with the insecticide.
Mr Moloney was also accused of taking part in an attack on an Associated Press photographer, John Minchillo, who was accused by several rioters of being a member of the left-wing antifa movement. Prosecutors say Mr. Moloney grabbed Mr. Minchillo’s camera, causing him to stumble down a flight of steps outside the Capitol, then punched and shoved him with others until the photographer was finally pushed over a wall.
In a separate attack, prosecutors say, Mr Moloney yanked another photographer’s camera and caused him to also stumble down the stairs.
Several other rioters have been charged with assaulting Mr. Minchillo, including a Pennsylvania man, Alan W. Byerly, who was sentenced to 34 months in prison in October.
Another man who admitted to taking part in the attack, Rodney K. Milstreed, will be sentenced next month. In a Facebook post a few days after the attack, Mr. Milstreet that attacking Mr. Michillo “was worth it”, adding that he “hit him with all that God gave”.
The charges against Mr. Moloney were a reminder that even two and a half years after a pro-Trump mob attacked the Capitol, federal authorities are still making arrests.
On Tuesday, the Justice Department said more than 1,040 people had been charged in connection with the riot. Prosecutors have told several Washington judges that an additional 1,000 people may be charged, according to people familiar with the case.
About a dozen people have been charged, such as Mr Moloney, for assaulting members of the news media or destroying their equipment on January 6. An additional 350 defendants have been charged with assaulting, obstructing or interfering with agents at the Capitol, including more than 100 who used a deadly or dangerous weapon, the Justice Department said.
Department officials say about 140 officers were attacked on Jan. 6, including 80 from the Capitol Police and 60 from the Metropolitan Police Department.
Mr Moloney’s case appears to be the first in which someone has been charged with using insecticides as a weapon against police. In other cases, defendants have been charged with assaulting officers with clubs, sticks, clubs, flagpoles, firecrackers, fire extinguishers, various types of chemical sprays, a hockey stick, and even a skateboard.