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Tear gas explodes at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as supporters of President Donald Trump breached security after his reelection defeat. | Photo courtesy of Tyler Merbler/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
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A California man convicted of using a stun gun on Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot in 2021 has been sentenced to 12.5 years in federal prison, prosecutors announced.
Daniel Joseph “‘DJ” Rodriguez, who has listed Panorama City and Fontana as his hometowns in court papers, pled guilty to several charges in February. He was officially sentenced Wednesday to “conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding, obstruction of justice, and assaulting a law enforcement officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon,” the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia said in a statement.
U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson added another 36 months of supervised release in addition to the prison sentence and for Rodriguez to pay $2,000 in restitution to the Architect of the Capitol and $96,927 to the Metropolitan Police Department for damages to Fanone.
Rodriguez and members of the PATRIOTS45MAGA Gang traveled from California to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, for a Stop the Steal rally on the National Mall, according to court records.
He entered the Capitol, and according to court documents, “video footage taken from the incident depicts Rodriguez at the first set of double doors of the Capitol building facing the police line and deploying a fire extinguisher at the line of officers present.”
Furthermore, Rodriguez was seen using a long wooden pole and shoving it toward officers in the line, court documents show.
“After Rodriguez returned to the lower west terrace tunnel, court documents state that video footage taken from the scene of the incident depicts one rioter, Albuquerque Head, wrapping his arm around the neck of an MPD officer and dragging the officer out on to the steps of the lower west terrace,” the statement said. “Rodriguez is then seen making his way toward the officer and, with the electroshock weapon in hand, plunging it into the officer’s neck. As the officer attempted to escape, court records state that Rodriguez struck again, placing the electroshock weapon on the back of the officer’s neck.”
The officer was later identified as Fanone, who served on the Metropolitan Police Department for nearly 20 years before resigning nearly a year after the Jan. 6 attack.
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