WASHINGTON — The Justice Department unsealed a new indictment Tuesday charging two more men in a savage attack on police officers defending the U.S. Capitol building on January 6.
Logan James Barnhart, a bodybuilder from Michigan, and Ronald Colton McAbee, of Tennessee, were both taken into custody this week on multiple counts each, including assaulting police with a dangerous weapon, inflicting bodily injury on officers and entering a restricted building or grounds.
The men are the sixth and seventh defendants indicted in connection with an assault on multiple D.C. police officers who were attempting to defend an access point at the Capitol building’s lower western terrace. They join the following men already charged in the assault:
- Jeffrey Sabol
- Peter Francis Stager
- Michael John Lopatic Sr.
- Clayton Ray Mullins
- Jack Wade Whitton
In an April opinion ordering Whitton to remain in custody, a federal judge described video footage of the assault which “left the officers wounded and in need of medical care,” including a D.C. police officer identified only as “A.W.” who sustained “a laceration that caused him to bleed from the head and required staples to close.”
In the video, later released by the DOJ, prosecutors say two of the MPD officers, “B.M.” and “A.W.,” can been see wading into the crowd trying to save someone they heard “was being trampled.” That’s when, prosecutors allege, “Whitton began striking at B.M. with a crutch.” The court documents allege Whitton grabbed at the officer “by the head and helmet” then dragged him down the steps in a prone position, over officer “A.W.” who still trying to hold the police line.
At that point, another co-defendant, Peter Stager, is accused of beating the officer “with an American flag on a pole.” As that was happening, prosecutors say MPD body-worn camera video shows the officer identified as “A.W.” was also dragged into the mob, allegedly kicked by Whitton while he was down on the ground.
Prosecutors say officer “A.W.” was also struck with poles and stomped on by several other people.
Later on during the night of January 6, prosecutors say Whitton shared a photo of his bloody knuckles in a text message, writing, “This is from a bad cop... Yea I fed him to the people. Idk his status. And don’t care.”
The new indictment comes as the Justice Department continues building group cases around some of the most sustained attacks on police on January 6. Last week, a fourth superseding indictment was filed in the DOJ’s Capitol tunnel assault case adding three defendants – David Mehaffie, of Ohio, Steven Cappuccio, of Texas, and Federico Klein, a State Department-appointee of former President Donald Trump.
It was not immediately clear Tuesday afternoon whether Barnhart and McAbee had made initial appearances yet before a judge.
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