A Florida resident was arrested and charged with assaulting police during the breach of the US Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021.
According to a press release from the US Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida, Michael Jerrett Amos, Naples, Florida, was charged in a criminal complaint filed in the District of Columbia with felony offenses of civil disorder and assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers. In addition to the felonies, Amos is charged with several misdemeanor offenses, including 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.
The FBI arrested Amos June 28, 2024, in Florida, and he made his initial appearance in the Middle District of Florida.
According to court documents, Amos was identified among a crowd of rioters present on the West Plaza of the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021. Here, officers were attempting to keep the rioters from progressing past the West Plaza by forming a police line while numerous rioters began pushing against established fencing and trying to pull it down. During this time, Amos was near the front of the crowd of rioters while the rioters made multiple efforts to pull the fencing away from the officers.
At about 1:57 p.m., court documents say that just to the side of where Amos was standing, a group of rioters began to pull some of the metal fencing to the ground along with a group of police officers. Officers were able to reestablish the police line; however, the crowd of rioters continued to pull on the fencing. It is alleged that Amos then surged forward toward the police line with a flagpole in his hands and extended it in the direction of officers.
As police reestablished their line, Amos remained at the front of the group of rioters and allegedly held in his right hand an object consistent with a canister of pepper spray. At approximately 2:12 p.m., rioters once again surged up the stairs in the same area and attacked officers, pulling some of them down the steps. Other officers then advanced down the steps to protect and retrieve the others, at which time, from the side of the crowd of rioters, it is alleged that Amos pulled the canister out of his pocket and sprayed it at the officers.
Amos remained on the West Plaza and was then allegedly captured on body-worn camera footage looking back toward the crowd behind him on the steps and shouting, “Forward…forward!” Less than one minute later, the crowd surged forward again at the officers, with rioters on the front row pushing and grabbing at officers while those behind, including Amos, were pushing against the others’ backs to help them advance. While the officers were able to eventually repel this attack and reestablish a police line, the line was finally and decisively breached only minutes later at approximately 2:30 p.m., and the rioters overtook the entire West Plaza.
This case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Department of Justice National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section. Valuable assistance was provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida.
The case is being investigated by the FBI’s Tampa and Washington Field Offices. Valuable assistance was provided by the U.S. Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department.
