A pair of Washington men identified by the Justice Department as a father and stepson were arrested this week for participating in last year’s Trump-incited mob attack on the Capitol, where both fought police.
The newly arrested Capitol rioters include Richard Slaughter and Caden Paul Gottfried, the latter of whom is the stepson and was ID’ed by the Justice Department as 20 years old. Slaughter’s charges include an offense that carries up to 20 years in prison if found guilty: assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement officers using a deadly or dangerous weapon. He was also charged with interfering with officers during a civil disorder, which like the first charge is a felony. Gottfried was also charged with the civil disorder offense and assaulting police, although his assault allegation didn’t include the specification of using a dangerous weapon, meaning it evidently carries up to eight years in prison. Both Slaughter and Gottfried were involved in confrontations with police officers near the Lower West Terrace tunnel at the Capitol, where Michael Fanone, Aquilino Gonell, Daniel Hodges, and others were attacked and injured by rioters.
Gottfried was initially detained during the riot, and a court filing accompanying his charges doesn’t specify the reason for his earlier release, although it includes an image of a document he was provided indicating an arrest for unlawful entry, although no charges were filed. The court filing indicates Slaughter and Gottfried were involved in an incident aboard what was seemingly their flight back from D.C. in which they refused to comply with mask-wearing policies aboard the Alaska Airlines trip and complained about the outcome of the last presidential election. “Caden Paul Gottfried, along with his stepfather, Richard Slaughter, initially came to the attention of the Seattle Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation after an inflight incident aboard an Alaska Airlines flight on January 7, 2021, related to mask non-compliance and protesting the results of the 2020 election,” the court filing says.
The document also includes details of prior communications between federal investigators and Slaughter. Under questioning in February last year, Slaughter said “conservatives don’t protest, they have jobs.” Available documentation that has since emerged shows Slaughter among those seemingly trying to force their way into the Lower West Terrace tunnel, where Slaughter repeatedly hit — or at least tried to hit — police with a pole of unclear origin, evidently eventually making contact. He also answered interview-style questions that day, touting his participation. There “is just, um, nauseating amounts of fraud, and it’s not being heard or seen, and we really have nothing left,” he said. He also provided a fellow rioter with a container of chemical irritant. As for Gottfried, he used the force of his body to try and push through police lines at the front of the tunnel. He was detained and eventually in the custody of the U.S. Capitol Police. “Gottfried’s actions led officers to pull him through the police line and into the tunnel, where he was then detained,” the court document says.
