Another member of last year’s Trump-incited mob at the Capitol pleaded guilty this week to criminal charges connected to their actions.
Illinois man Shane Jason Woods, who is 44 years old, assaulted both police and media while participating in the Capitol violence last year. In the incident involving police, Woods tackled a woman serving with the U.S. Capitol Police as the officer pursued someone who sprayed her with a chemical irritant. “Woods lowered his shoulder and rammed into her,” the Justice Department specifies, and the officer fell to the ground and into one of the metal bicycle racks used as physical barricades — and weapons — that day. According to the Justice Department, the officer compared her pain from the day after the assault to a feeling she was “hit by a truck.” Woods pleaded guilty to a charge of assaulting police that carries up to eight years in prison.
The officer targeted by Woods’s assault is identified in a court document by the initials “J.F.” Woods also tackled a member of the media later in the afternoon as the individual, who was carrying a camera, was trying to leave the chaotic scene. Trends within Trump’s corner of the GOP make the potential danger to members of the media in a situation like the Capitol riot obvious. Around the time of the latter incident, Woods was participating in destroying media equipment left behind by various individuals. After noticing the nearby member of the media he targeted, “Woods took a running start and hit the man with a blindside shoulder tackle,” the Justice Department says. Like the officer, the target of that assault Woods perpetrated fell to the ground, dropping the presumably pricey camera. Woods pleaded guilty to an assault charge in connection to that incident that comes with up to a year in prison.
The member of the media was identified in a court document by the initials G.P. The outlet with which the individual might have worked isn’t immediately clear. Woods was arrested in June of last year, and he will face sentencing January 13. He is among hundreds of riot participants who were charged with assaulting police.
