The owner of a Long Island funeral home was charged Wednesday with spraying insecticide on police officers guarding the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The man, Peter G. Moloney, 58, was arrested in a wide-ranging Justice Department investigation into the mob attack. He is also accused of assaulting members of the news media outside the Capitol, according to charging documents unsealed in Federal District Court in Washington.
Prosecutors say Mr. Moloney, of Bayport, NY, showed up at the Capitol wearing a bicycle helmet and protective eyewear, carrying a canister of Black Flag Wasp, Hornet and Yellow Jacket Killer. After he approached a line of officers lined up behind metal barricades on the west side of the building, prosecutors said, he sprayed some of them with insecticide.
Mr. Moloney was released from custody on a $100,000 bond at his initial appearance in Federal District Court in Islip, N.Y. Outside court, his attorney, Edward Heilig, said Mr. Moloney on June 20.
“He is presumed innocent at this time,” said Mr. Heilig.
Mr. Moloney was also accused of participating in an attack on an Associated Press photographer, John Minchillo, who many rioters accused of being a member of the leftist movement antifa. Prosecutors say Mr. Moloney took the camera of Mr. Minchillo, causing him to stumble down some steps outside the Capitol, then joined others in punching and shoving him until the photographer was pushed against a wall.
In a separate attack, prosecutors say, Mr. Moloney grabbed another photographer’s camera and caused him to stumble down the stairs as well.
Several other rioters were accused of attacking Mr. Minchillo, including a Pennsylvania man, Alan W. Byerly, who was sentenced in October to 34 months in prison.
Another man who admitted to participating in the attack, Rodney K. Milstreed, is scheduled to be sentenced next month. In a Facebook post a few days after the attack, Mr. Milstreed said that the attack on Mr. Michillo “deserves it,” adding that he “hit him with everything God gave.”
The charges filed against Mr. Moloney is a reminder that even two and a half years after a pro-Trump mob attacked the Capitol, federal authorities continue to make arrests.
On Tuesday, the Justice Department said more than 1,040 people had been charged in connection with the riots. Prosecutors have told several judges in Washington that there could be as many as 1,000 people who will eventually face charges, according to people familiar with the matter.
About a dozen people were accused, like Mr. Moloney, for assaulting members of the news media or destroying their equipment on Jan. 6. Another 350 defendants were charged with assaulting, resisting or obstructing Capitol officials, including more than 100 who used and deadly or dangerous weapons, according to the Justice Department.
Department officials said about 140 officers were attacked on January 6, including 80 from the Capitol and 60 from the Metropolitan Police Department.
It appears that the case of Mr. Moloney was the first in which someone was accused of using insecticide as a weapon against the police. In other cases, the defendants were charged with assaulting officers with bats, sticks, batons, flag poles, fire crackers, fire extinguishers, different types of chemical sprays, hockey sticks and even skateboards.
Chelsea Rose Marcius and Nate Schweber contributed to the report.