A California man has been apprehended on charges tied to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, where he allegedly engaged in violence against law enforcement, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office. Dane Christoffer Thompson, 45, from Granite Bay, was arrested last Friday, for his purported role in the events that sought to disrupt a Joint Session of Congress meant to confirm the 2020 presidential election results.
Thompson is facing several charges, including felony offenses of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers and civil disorder. Amid the chaos caught in open-source videos and images, Thompson is alleged to have wrestled with police officers and to have helped in overall efforts to forcefully breach police defenses erected around the Capitol.
Additionally, Thompson has been charged with five misdemeanors: entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and act of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or buildings. His initial court appearance was scheduled for the day of his arrest in the Eastern District of California.
Court documents detailed Thompson's alleged actions, portraying him as an aggressive participant who repeatedly tried to bypass police barricades. He is said to have grabbed an officer's arm, lunged at police, and even pushed an officer against a platform. The documents go on to describe how Thompson was part of a group effort trying to pass a police riot shield and to coordinate a "heave-ho" push against law enforcement in the Capitol's Tunnel, a focal point of the day's violence.
This case falls under the broad investigation of the Capitol breach, which has so far seen over 1,561 individuals charged across the U.S. More than 590 of these individuals are facing felony charges for assaulting or impeding law enforcement. While Thompson was identified as AFO #292 by the FBI, the investigation into the Jan. 6 riot remains active, with the FBI encouraging anyone with tips to contact them via phone at 1-800-CALL-FBI or online at tips.fbi.gov. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, together with the Department of Justice National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section and valuable assistance from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California, FBI's field offices, the United States Capitol Police, and the Metropolitan Police Department, are responsible for prosecuting the case. As conveyed in the press release, a complaint is merely an allegation, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
