New York Man Who Grabbed Officer’s Pepper Spray on Jan. 6 Pleads Guilty

An upstate New York man who grabbed a police officer’s can of pepper spray as he and other supporters of former President Donald J. Trump rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has pleaded guilty to federal felony and misdemeanor charges, prosecutors said on Friday.

The man, Troy Weeks, was part of the mob that was on the building’s Lower West Terrace, “the site of some of the most violent attacks against law enforcement” during the riot, prosecutors said.

Mr. Weeks, 38, of Greenville, pleaded guilty to felony charges of civil disorder and assaulting, resisting or impeding officers, as well as to misdemeanor counts that included disorderly and disruptive conduct and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, prosecutors said.

Lawyers for Mr. Weeks did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

More than 1,400 people have been criminally charged in the three years since supporters of Mr. Trump stormed the Capitol in an effort to disrupt the certification of President Biden as the winner of the 2020 election, the Justice Department said in a news release.

About 500 of the defendants have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, according to federal prosecutors. Mr. Trump himself faces federal charges for what prosecutors say were his efforts to subvert voters’ will in 2020. He has pleaded not guilty.

Mr. Weeks entered the Capitol at around 3:02 p.m. on the day of the riot and walked toward a line of police officers inside a tunnel, the authorities said. According to security footage, Mr. Weeks appeared to be wearing a gray jacket with a hood at the time.

As he reached the police line, he thrust his arm through a broken window and pulled a Metropolitan Police officer’s can of pepper spray away from him, according to a criminal complaint. The officer was able to quickly snatch it back, according to prosecutors. Security footage then showed Mr. Weeks grabbing the inside of a police officer’s riot shield.

Within a few minutes of entering the building, the complaint says, Mr. Weeks was rubbing his eyes.

“Please!,” he could be heard telling officers, according to the complaint. “We’re gonna die! Let us through! I can’t breathe! I have asthma.” He was pushed out of the tunnel by the mob he was part of, the complaint says.

More than an hour later, according to prosecutors, Mr. Weeks was on the west side of the Capitol and could be heard on footage recorded by police body-worn cameras asking officers why they weren’t “protecting the ballots.”

Investigators identified Mr. Weeks by using images connected to an Instagram account and open source resources to find relatives and a co-worker of his as well as his landlord, the complaint says.

Mr. Weeks is scheduled to be sentenced in November by Judge Rudolph Contreras of Federal District Court in Washington, D.C.