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Insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. | Photo courtesy of Tyler Merbler/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
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A former resident of Westminster pleaded guilty Monday in the District of Columbia to a felony charge for assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement officers during the Jan. 6, 2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol, which disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress convened to count the electoral votes related to the presidential election.
Kevin Galetto, 63, now of Merritt Island, Florida, will be sentenced Aug. 8, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
Around 2:40 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021, Galetto approached the lower west terrace tunnel entrance of the Capitol wearing a black Donald J. Trump baseball hat, a black headband/ear warmer, and a tan jacket, according to federal prosecutors.
Galetto was one of the first people inside the tunnel and was met with a large police presence denying entrance into the building. When confronted by the police officers in the tunnel entrance, Galetto and others engaged in acts of violence, prosecutors said.
Evidence from police body cameras captured Galetto at the tunnel entrance, arms extended and pressed up against officer shields. Shortly afterwards, after an officer was knocked to the ground, Galetto was filmed on one knee with a hand on the ground, evidence showed.
Less than a minute later, Galetto rose to his feet and retreated from the area of the tunnel. As he made his way from the inside to the tunnel entrance, Galetto shouted to the crowd outside, “More people!” in an attempt to summon more rioters to the tunnel entrance, federal prosecutors said.
Galetto remained at the tunnel for over an hour and a half and was part of one of the last pushes against officers. His violent confrontation with officers as part of the crowd presented “an immediate risk of injury to person or damage to property,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
On the evening of Jan. 6, 2021, Galetto texted someone on his cell phone that the politicians “need to be overthrown,” and that then-Vice President Mike Pence is a traitor, misspelling it as “trader,” according to prosecutors.
Galetto was arrested on April 23, 2021, in Westminster.
In the 26 months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,000 people have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including more than 320 people charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The investigation remains ongoing.
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