US Capitol riots: Two alleged Proud Boys members indicted for conspiracy

The US federal authorities on January 30 detained two alleged Proud Boys members for inciting violence at the US Capitol building on January 6. Prosecutors, thus far, have charged scores of pro-Trump rioters as investigators stiffen their search for those identified, ransacking congressional offices attempting at a coup, via gathered evidence such as video footages and witnesses. The two Proud boys were arrested for charges of conspiracy and violence, in a first-ever against members of the alt-right group. Rochester county resident, Dominic Pezzola, aged 43, and Beacon county’s William Pepe, aged 31, are now facing multiple counts of charges in the indictment. 

The proud boy members were detained by the DC police on Jan. 12 and Jan. 15, respectively. Pezzola was identified to have served in US Marine Corps for at least seven years as an infantry assault man, according to sources of ABC. Per the court’s filing, cited by the network, Pezzola and Pepe were charged for engaging in conspiracy and violent acts as they destroyed the Capitol deputies’ barricade, obstructed the then-president-elect Joe Biden’s certification, and hampered the law and order. The two members were charged for ensuing chaos to ‘obstruct, influence, impede and interfere with law enforcement officers engaged in official duties incident to and during the commission of a civil disorder.’ 

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[Members of the Proud Boys, including organizer Joe Biggs, third from right, march across the Hawthorne Bridge during an "End Domestic Terrorism" rally in Portland. AP Photo/Noah Berger, file]

Alt-right extremists held

Law enforcement authorities, earlier, took the founder of a Proud Boys chapter into custody. Joseph Biggs, a self-described organiser for Proud Boys, appeared in several footages used by the FBI for evidence, wherein he yelled; “This is awesome” as he rioted in the government building. Biggs was charged with three federal counts by prosecutors for ‘obstructing, influencing, or impeding official proceeding, knowingly entering a restricted building and willfully engaging in disorderly conduct to impede a session of Congress’. Biggs, along with Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, “did aid, abet, counsel, command, induce, or procure others to unlawfully enter the US Capitol by means of destruction of federal property,” an FBI affidavit stated. With arrests continuing, Proud Boys, the alt-right extremist white supremacist group are being held as key instigators for encouraging fellow extremists to join demonstrations in DC. 

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(Image Credit: AP)