HOUSTON – A 32-year-old Houston man was arrested Friday for assaulting law enforcement in connection to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to a release from the FBI.
Authorities said Andrew Quentin Taake is charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers and obstruction of an official proceeding, among other federal charges.
According to court documents, Taake was on Capitol grounds on the afternoon of Jan. 6. Around 1:15 p.m., he was seen approaching and pepper-spraying a line of police officers who were trying to prevent rioters from entering the capitol building, according to body-worn camera footage from the Metropolitan Police Department.
About a half-hour later, Taake was seen engaging in a second assault against law enforcement. Authorities said the footage shows Taake hitting officers with what appeared to be a whip-like weapon. He was also later seen in a video walking through the U.S. Capitol building holding the whip-like weapon.
In addition, the FBI said they received a tip from someone who met Taake on a dating app, Bumble, while he was in Washington D.C. While the two never met, the witness said Taake discussed his participation in the riot and sent several pictures of himself, including a photo taken after he was allegedly pepper-sprayed by law enforcement. The witness said Taake said he was inside the Capitol for about 30 minutes.
In the six months since the Capitol breach, more than 535 individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the incident, per the release. There have been at least nine suspect arrested from the Houston area.
The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Department of Justice National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section, with assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas.
The case is being investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office, as well as the Metropolitan Police Department, the U.S. Capitol Police and FBI’s Houston Field Office.