Inset: Troy Allen Koen. Background: Koen, circled, attacks police officer during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol (U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia).
A 54-year-old Indiana man pleaded guilty Friday for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Troy Allen Koen entered the guilty plea to the charge of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said in a press release. He’s scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 26. Prosecutors say Koen was among the group of rioters who pushed their way past Capitol police and into the west side of the building. Koen reportedly “made his way to the front of the line” and started pulling bike racks away from police officers who had erected them as a barricade.
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After successfully fighting through the first barrier of defense, Koen yelled and pointed at cops. He then led the group that overpowered police officers holding another barricade, prosecutors said.
“As Koen and the others violently seized the second barricade from the police line and passed it back into the crowd of rioters, a police officer was knocked forward and dragged down onto the ground by a different rioter,” the press release said. “Eventually, the mob successfully overpowered and overran the police line, and the officers quickly retreated to the Lower West Terrace and congregated in the Lower West Terrace Tunnel, the site of some of the most violent attacks against law enforcement that day.”
Koen entered the tunnel and grabbed a pole with “Trump 2020” and Confederate flags on it. According to prosecutors, he lifted the pole and began to jab at a glass door, shattering it. Other rioters then reached through the broken glass and opened the door. With the door open, the mob immediately began to push against more cops holding a line.
The defendant broke the flag pole into two different pieces. He then jabbed the poles into officers several times.
“As officers held their ground, rioters continued to attack, using their collective body weight to push against the police line, strike police with batons and flag poles, and spray chemical irritants into the Tunnel. While this occurred, Koen remained at the forefront of the mob of rioters,” the press release said.
Cops arrested Koen in Indianapolis last November.
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