A Texas man has been handed a 33-month prison sentence for his involvement in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, following a guilty plea to multiple charges. David Rene Arredondo, 48, from El Paso, will also face three years of supervised release and a $2,000 restitution payment, as decreed by U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth. Arredondo's charges include felony civil disorder and assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers, as well as six misdemeanors related to his activities on Capitol grounds, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
On January 3, Arredondo entered a guilty plea to the eight counts laid against him, which captured both his violent interactions with law enforcement and his unauthorized presence in and around the U.S. Capitol building. Publicly available images and video footage, along with Capitol surveillance, documented Arredondo actively pulling down bike rack fencing to breach a perimeter line, and engaging in a physical altercation with officers. In one instance, he was seen grabbing, and pulling the arm of an officer amidst a tumult of rioters, his actions evidencing the chaos that unfurled that day.
The FBI's arrest of Arredondo came on October 26, 2022. His case was handled by a team including the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia and the Counterterrorism Section of the Department of Justice's National Security Division, with assistance from several federal and local agencies. As noted in the Department of Justice's official release, the investigation into the Capitol breach has resulted in charges against over 1,488 individuals across various states, signaling the extensive scope of the inquiry which is still underway.
With nearly 550 individuals facing charges for assaulting or impeding law enforcement, a felony, the repercussions of January 6 continue to ripple through the justice system. Arredondo's sentencing stands as a reminder of the continuing efforts to hold accountable those who participated in the day's violent events. This robust investigation spans almost all 50 states, reflecting the national scale of a moment that, nearly 43 months later, still anchors a fraught conversation about democracy and the rule of law in America.
