FBI arrests SD man charged with helping shove metal Trump sign into police line on Jan. 6
A South Dakota man has been arrested by the FBI on charges related to his actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, including shoving a “giant” metal sign toward police.
William George Knight, 37, of Rapid City, S.D., was arrested Sunday and has been charged with two felonies and five misdemeanor offenses related to the riot, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Wednesday.
His misdemeanor charges are entering and remaining in a restricted area, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted area, engaging in physical violence in a restricted area, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and act of physical violence in the Capitol area. Knight’s felony charges are obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder and assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers, according to the DOJ.
After the “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, according to the DOJ, Knight and others watched as the United States Park Police took an individual into custody. Knight “pursued” park police into a glass structured screening facility, where he aggressively approached the glass and put “his middle fingers up to the glass and pointed menacingly at the police.”
Knight then headed toward the Capitol and was one of the first rioters to breach restricted areas and arrive on the West Plaza, the DOJ said.
Knight was pulling forcefully on bike rack barriers that were set up in the area as a police line. Court documents say Metropolitan Police Department officers “had to deploy chemical spray” to stop him.
“Knight then jeered at the police line for several minutes, pointed at them aggressively multiple times, and yelled at the police, ‘We ain’t leaving! We ain’t going nowhere!’” the DOJ said in its press release on the arrest.
Knight and other rioters pushed a “giant metal-framed sign” that read “TRUMP” toward the police and later shoved a police officer. He was part of a group that pushed against the police line that “collapsed” and the rioters made their way up to the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace.
The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia and is being investigated by the FBI’s Minneapolis Division, Rapid City Resident Agency and Washington field officers.
Since the Jan. 6 attack, nearly 1,500 individuals have been charged related to the breach of the Capitol. Knight now joins about 500 others charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement officers.
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