Mississippi Man Charged with Assaulting Capitol Police

By Will Stribling

Mississippi Today

A Mississippi man has been arrested and charged with assaulting a Capitol police officer during the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.

Michael Leon Brock, a 54-year-old resident of Walls, is the first Mississippian to be charged in connection to the events of Jan 6. Over the past six months, more than 535 people have been arrested across all 50 states for crimes committed during the deadly pro-Trump riot. 

Footage from a Capitol police officer’s body camera, and a video posted to the far-right social media platform Parler, show Brock beating multiple law enforcement officers with a four-foot-long metal rod. Two confidential witnesses identified Brock as the man in the footage to investigators, one who had known him for two decades. 

In addition to the video footage, federal investigators obtained phone records for Brock, which showed his phone connecting to a cell tower that provided service to the interior of the Capitol Building during the riot. 

The federal charges brought against Brock include:

• Assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers
• Disorderly conduct in the Capitol building
• Active physical violence in the Capitol grounds or buildings
• Obstruction of law-enforcement during civil disorder

Brock made his initial appearance in the Northern District of Mississippi on Wednesday. The felony assault charge carries a maximum of 20 years in prison. A Florida man became the first Capitol riot defendant to be sentenced for a felony charge on Monday. That rioter, Paul Hodgkins, was sentenced to eight months in prison. He was not accused of physical violence, however, but of obstructing an official proceeding.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.