A father and stepson from Maryland who participated in last year’s Capitol riot, where the younger of the two hurled a piece of wood at police, striking an officer in the head, have been arrested, per new revelations from the Justice Department.
The newly arrested riot participants include Douglas Wyatt, who the Justice Department identified as 49 years old, and stepson Jacob Michael Therres, who is in his mid-20s. Therres hurled that plank of wood at police after Wyatt handed it to him. The officer who was hit in the head has sustained lingering medical issues from the incident, and charges for both Wyatt and Therres now include assault on police. They’re also charged with interference with law enforcement during a civil disorder, which is another felony, along with a slew of misdemeanors. For both men, federal investigators received multiple tips about the trail of information they left documenting their involvement in the Capitol violence. Investigators were even informed Therres was evidently claiming to have used a taser against several officers, although it’s unclear whether there is any actual evidence of such a thing, which might have been difficult to miss.
The incident with the wood was, however, clearly captured on camera. “That Officer has experienced immediate and lingering medical effects from the blow to the head,” a document in the father and stepson’s case says, describing the officer Therres hit. As for Wyatt, the five individual tipsters who provided info about him to authorities drew from his Facebook presence, where he both indicated ahead of January 6 that he would be going to the Capitol and rather openly documented his involvement once actually showing up. “What a day,” Wyatt said in one post. “Lots of pepper spray & a few rubber bullets. Stop the steal!” The post included photo and video documentation of Wyatt in the crowd and in close proximity to police. As for Wyatt, he personally used some kind of chemical spray against police, although he predictably claimed both on Facebook and through an attorney originally retained after contact from the feds that he didn’t assault police.
“WYATT also angrily shouted at and encouraged the crowd before turning back to face
and shout at the officers again about, among other things, the ”fraudulent fucking election,”” the federal court filing says of one juncture on January 6. Now, he’s facing serious charges. Life comes at you fast, no matter the self-confidence expressed. In the month after the riot (February of last year), the filing notes records eventually obtained from Meta (the parent company responsible for Facebook) show Wyatt was searching for info seemingly about who feds were looking for after the Capitol riot, as though he was worried he’d pop up in the search. It’s you, Douglas.
