George Gonzalez (U.S. Attorney’s Office).
A man from Florida has been arrested by federal agents for his involvement in the events that took place at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. The authorities identified the man, George Gonzalez, from footage showing him breaking windows and clashing with law enforcement officers at the Capitol. When presented with a photo of himself by the FBI, Gonzalez denied being at the scene.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office has charged Gonzalez, 46, with various offenses including assaulting officers, obstructing law enforcement during a civil disorder, damaging government property, trespassing, and disorderly conduct. According to court documents, Gonzalez was captured on video entering the Capitol grounds through the West Front entrance. He allegedly broke a window to gain access to the building and confronted police officers inside.
After leaving the building, Gonzalez returned by breaking another window and entering through it. Once inside, he reportedly joined other individuals in the Crypt area and attempted to breach a police line. Despite being pushed back initially, Gonzalez and the crowd he was with managed to overpower the police and advance further into the Capitol building.
Gonzalez and other rioters forced police back past the House Wing Door and through the Hall of Columns, authorities said. Then, he allegedly went upstairs to the second floor and hung around the Statuary Hall Connector, which leads to the House of Representatives floor, for about eight minutes before he was escorted out by police, ending his 42-minute jaunt inside the Capitol building.
In an interview on May 14, 2024, Gonzalez claimed to an FBI agent that he could not recall whether he was at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and denied that it was him in photo “AFO-479,” a picture seeking a Jan. 6 individual involved in the riots that the agent showed him.
“By way of explanation, he said that he lived in the Baltimore area at the time and sometimes conducted business in Washington, D.C.,” court documents said. “When shown photos of AFO-479 and asked if the person depicted was him, Gonzalez said it was not him. He conceded that the person pictured looked like him, but insisted it was not him.”
“I believe Gonzalez’s claim that he could not remember whether he was in D.C. on January 6, and his denial that he is the person shown in the pictures as AFO-479, were untrue,” the agent added.
Gonzalez was not the only accused rioter who allegedly smashed windows at the Capitol that day. As Law&Crime previously reported, Dominic Pezzola, a member of the Proud Boys extremist group, was sentenced to a decade behind bars after using a stolen riot shield to smash a window of the Capitol building that day. Another rioter who smashed a Capitol window with a metal tomahawk ax got seven years in prison.
The post Man seen on video at U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 told investigators he wasn’t actually there that day: Feds first appeared on Law & Crime.
