A Utah man is facing charges after he allegedly assaulted police during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Charging documents filed Tuesday allege that Landon Kenneth Copeland, 33, was seen on YouTube and Instagram videos pushing police officers on the Capitol grounds. Copeland was also allegedly among a group of people trying to breach the police line. The documents say Copeland pushed another man into a police officer. He also allegedly grabbed police riot shields and pushed against them, and grabbed a police officer’s jacket and pushed that officer.
Copeland joined other rioters in grabbing a metal fence that was being used as a barricade, according to the documents. He allegedly pushed the fence toward multiple officers.
An FBI analyst matched pictures of Copeland from the riot to photos on a Facebook page. Some of the Facebook photos were captioned “the beginning of the libertarian right.”
An acquaintance of Copeland’s in Utah confirmed with an FBI agent that Copeland had admitted to traveling to Washington, D.C., and getting into a scuffle with police, documents state.
The FBI interviewed Copeland on Feb. 11, when he allegedly admitted to fighting with police officers, but he said he hadn’t gone into the Capitol building.
Copeland is the fifth man from Utah to face charges related to the insurrection.
Activist John Sullivan was the first man to be charged, followed by Brady Knowlton and former Salt Lake City police officer Michael Lee Hardin. Willard Peart was charged earlier this week.
