Michael Joseph Foy charged with hitting cops with hockey stick outside Capitol: DOJ

Federal investigators on Thursday identified the man suspected of striking a group of police officers with a hockey stick outside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 uprising.

The Department of Justice announced on its website that Michael Joseph Foy of Michigan was arrested Thursday on charges including forcibly assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous or deadly weapon.

Mr. Foy also faces counts of obstruction of law enforcement, obstruction of Congress, trespassing on Capitol grounds and aiding and abetting, the Justice Department announced on the agency’s site.

The charges make Mr. Foy among the latest additions to a rapidly growing list of people in legal trouble following the deadly, failed insurrection that happened on Capitol Hill earlier this month.

A special agent for the FBI said its investigators believe Mr. Foy was caught on camera using a hockey stick to repeatedly strike a group of D.C. Metropolitan Police Department officers protecting the Capitol.

“This attack continues for approximately 16 seconds until Foy is knocked down by another rioter,” the FBI agent wrote in a statement of facts shared alongside the announcement of his arrest. “At that time, Foy circles back through the crowd, lowers his hood, which reveals a clear image of his face.”

Mr. Foy was later recorded being among the members of the mob who physically breached the Capitol Building by entering through a broken window, the FBI agent wrote in the document.

Authorities identified Mr. Foy in part by relying on the social media postings of his father, according to the FBI agent. In one post, the father shared a photograph of the suspect carrying a hockey stick on the day the Capitol was stormed while dressed in the same garb as the assailant caught on camera.

Federal court filings did not include the government’s case against Mr. Foy as of early Thursday afternoon, so it was not clear if he obtained a lawyer who could be asked to comment.

Mobs of supporters of former President Trump stormed the Capitol during a joint session of Congress in which its members were set to formalize the results of the recent White House race.

Five people died in the attack, including a U.S. Capitol Police officer, and Mr. Trump was impeached for inciting an insurrection the following week. President Biden, who defeated Mr. Trump in the November election, succeeded him a week later.