WASHINGTON — Dominic Pezzola, the New York Proud Boy who used a police riot shield to create the first breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, took the stand Tuesday to tell jurors they shouldn’t blame his co-defendants for his role in the Capitol riot.
Pezzola, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and flooring contractor, was one of five Proud Boys indicted on a slew of felony charges, including seditious conspiracy, for allegedly plotting to incite the attack on the Capitol. Pezzola took the stand late Tuesday afternoon as possibly the final witness jurors would hear from in the four-month long trial.
“I’m taking the stand to take responsibility for my actions on Jan. 6,” Pezzola told jurors after being sworn in. “But I’m also taking the stand to explain how these men over here I was indicted with should not be roped into my actions. I’m also here to explain there was no conspiracy.”
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Pezzola has remained one of the most high-profile rioters thanks to video of him using a riot shield to bash in a window near the Senate Wing doors on the north side of the Capitol. Once inside, Pezzola recorded a video of himself on his cellphone smoking a “victory cigar.”
"I knew we could take this motherfu***er over if we just tried hard enough,” Pezzola says in the video. “Proud of your motherf***in' boy."
The Proud Boys have consistently denied any plan to incite violence or attack the Capitol on Jan. 6. Pezzola’s attorneys, Steven Metcalf and Roger Roots (who asked to be excused from the case last week to assist another defendant in a different trial), have argued it was the less-lethal force used by police that inflamed rioters. During his brief time on the stand Tuesday, Pezzola made a similar claim.
“I got caught up in all the craziness. I trespassed at the first breach. I trespassed at the second breach… I basically trespassed at all the breaches,” he said. “During the scuffle during the shield incident, I did grab a hold of the officer’s shield out of fear for my own life, because there was deadly force being used against us.”
“At one point I was looking at the blood on the ground and I was going up to the cops to explain its not legal to shoot people in the face and the next second the bullets were coming for me,” he added.
Pezzola also admitted he broke “one pane of glass” and then entered the building, at which point he “wandered around lost.”
Pezzola had only been a member of the Proud Boys for a short time when he joined the group in D.C. on Jan. 6. His stature in the group had been elevated after former chairman Enrique Tarrio, now one of his co-defendants, posted a photograph of him at a New York rally with the caption, “Lords of War.” On the stand Tuesday, he downplayed or denied any familiarity with the other Proud Boys on trial.
“Zachary Rehl, never met him. Ethan Nordean, never met him. Joe Biggs, never met him,” Pezzola said. “Enrique Tarrio, there’s a couple pictures of us floating around… but it was more similar to when someone goes to a concert.”
Pezzola was on the stand for approximately 20 minutes Tuesday before the jury was sent home for the day. His direct examination was expected to continue Wednesday, followed by cross-examination by the government.
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