A Pennsylvania man has been charged for attacking Capitol Police officers during the Jan. 6 insurrection—and leaving one female officer with a concussion, according to court documents unsealed Monday.
Ryan Samsel, 37, has been charged with several crimes, including assaulting a federal officer, obstructing law enforcement, and obstructing a legal proceeding, after he was caught on several videos and photographs participating in the Capitol riots. He was taken into custody on Saturday, a law enforcement source told The Daily Beast.
According to a criminal complaint unsealed Monday, prosecutors allege Samsel traveled on Jan. 6 from Levittown, Pennsylvania, to Washington, D.C., where he appeared in several videos walking past a fence near the Capitol with at least one other rioter. Once he approached the fence manned by several U.S. Capitol Police officers, Samsel “immediately became confrontational” and “pushed and pulled” on the barricade with other rioters until he fell on top of the officers, according to authorities.
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“Samsel eventually removed his light blue jacket, revealing a long sleeve white-hooded shirt under a black t-shirt, and turned his hat around backward in a manner that appears as if Samsel was preparing for a physical altercation,” the complaint states.
In the process of pushing down the barricades, Samsel and the other rioters knocked over a female officer, who fell and hit her head on “the stairs behind her, resulting in a loss of consciousness.”
The complaint states that as Samsel picked the officer up off the ground, he told her: “We don’t have to hurt you. Why are you standing in our way?”
The cop’s fellow officers immediately took her away from the area, stationing her at the West Terrace of the Capitol with additional officers “for her safety.” But just hours later, while she was arresting another rioter during the siege, the officer “blacked out and collapsed in the booking area and had to be transported to the Emergency Room at a local hospital, where she was assessed to have suffered a concussion.”
Prosecutors state that as rioters inched closer to the Capitol, Samsel was seen on video fighting with another group of officers—and even attempted “to pull a riot shield” from one of the uniformed men.
The complaint states that after the riots, investigators were able to identify Samsel through his previously criminal charges. Samsel is currently on parole for a 2016 assault conviction in Pennsylvania and there is a warrant out for his arrest in New Jersey for an alleged assault in 2019.
A North Carolina man was also charged Monday after he allegedly filmed himself storming the Capitol on Jan. 6. Stephen Maury Baker, 32, was arrested Monday and charged with unlawfully entering a restricted building and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds for his role in the siege.
According to a criminal complaint, Baker live-streamed himself storming the Capitol on several social media platforms, including his YouTube channel called “Stephen Ignoramus.”
“That was so epic,” he said in one of the videos. “Historic day.”
After the riots, Baker deleted the videos, in which he referred to himself as “Stephen Ignoramus” multiple times, from his YouTube page.
Investigators, however, were able to obtain copies of the videos from multiple witnesses and news outlets. One witness told the FBI that Baker has two YouTube channels and was “alarmed by the content...including [the] advancement of conspiracy theories and mockery of minority groups.”
One of his channels was banned by YouTube in December, according to the complaint. As previously reported by The Daily Beast, Baker has been living in Washington, D.C., and working as a “beloved” music teacher.
According to a co-worker, Baker started his YouTube channel that promoted racist and anti-Semitic content, as well as conspiracy theories after he attended a survivalist camp in the Virginia mountains. The complaint notes that Baker is familiar with several far-right militias, including the Oath Keepers.
Zachary Alam, who was captured on video wearing a fur-lined hat and smashing a window to the Speaker’s Lobby during the insurrection, has also been charged. In court documents released Monday, prosecutors say Alam can be seen storming the Capitol building on police footage and “appeared agitated as he walked down the hallway towards the East stairs.”
Alam was also seen “trying to breach a barricaded door to the Speaker’s Lobby, a hallway that connects to the House of Representatives chambers.” The complaint notes that chairs used to barricade the door from inside the Speaker’s Lobby were visible through the glass panels.
Videos showing Alam and a group of rioters trying to breach the Speaker’s Lobby also captured the shooting of Ashli Babbit, an Army veteran who was killed by a Capitol Police cop while climbing through a broken window and trying to enter the House chamber. She was among five individuals who died in the siege.
Prosecutors say that in the video, Alam is seen “repeatedly punching the glass panels of the doors immediately behind the officers, causing the glass to splinter.” Alam then pushed his body against the officer guarding the door, according to authorities.
The complaint states Alam shouted, “Fuck the blue,” multiple times at the officers, then kicked the glass panels of the Speaker’s Lobby door.
“Shortly thereafter, he took a black-colored helmet from an individual with a yellow ‘Don’t tread on me’ flag, took off his fur-lined hat and red baseball hat, and violently struck the middle glass panel repeatedly with the helmet, further shattering the window,” the complaint states, adding that he “then smashed the window panel on the right with the helmet.”
“Babbitt was shot while attempting to climb through one of the shattered windows. After the shot, the [Alam] backed away toward the stairwell next to the U.S. Capitol Police tactical unit,” the complaint adds.
The complaint states that the FBI received multiple tips about Alam’s identity, including one from a family member.
