Pa. man and another charged with assaulting police in Capitol insurrection ordered jailed pending trial

“In other words," the judge said, “they played a role in the ultimate breach in the attack on the Capitol.”

• By Ryan Lucas/NPR

(Washington) – A federal judge has ordered two men who are charged with conspiracy for allegedly assaulting police officers during the Capitol riot to be detained pending trial.

Julian Khater of State College and George Tanios have pleaded not guilty to the 10 counts against them, including assaulting an officer and conspiracy to injure an officer. The men are accused of using pepper spray on police who were defending the Capitol on Jan. 6, an assault that prosecutors say was timed to help rioters break through police lines and storm the building.

George Tanios and Julian Khater – the two men charged with assaulting fallen US Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick – will spend at least another week in jail. Court postpones their hearing from May 6 to May 11 pic.twitter.com/KJ335NB78m

— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) May 1, 2021

On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Hogan ordered Khater and Tanios to remain in custody pending trial after finding that they pose a danger to the community.

“These two gentlemen are law-abiding, respected individuals in the community, and it makes it very difficult for the court to make this conclusion,” Hogan said, noting their otherwise clean records, strong community ties and family support. “But they still committed this attack on uniformed police officers, and I don’t find a way around that.”

Prosecutors say Tanios bought two canisters of bear spray and two canisters of pepper spray on Jan. 5 before traveling to Washington, D.C., for the Trump rally. Call records indicate he was on the phone with Khater while he was in the store purchasing the materials, according to the government.

Prosecutors say the two men drove together to D.C. on the eve of the rally. Then on Jan. 6, Tanios and Khater were in the crowd outside the Capitol engaging with police who were trying to protect the building.

At one point, according to videos presented by the government, Khater walks over to Tanios and tells him to “give me that bear s***,” and reaches into a backpack that Tanios is carrying.

Tanios tells him: “Hold on, hold on, not yet, not yet … it’s still early.” Khater can then be seen holding a canister of what prosecutors say is chemical spray.

A few minutes later, Khater can be seen on video spraying three U.S. Capitol Police officers, who immediately retreat from the line and raise their hands to their face. One of the officers, Brian Sicknick, died the following day. The city’s medical examiner has said Sicknick died of natural causes. The report also noted Sicknick was among the officers who tried to hold off the mob — saying “all that transpired played a role in his condition.”

At Tuesday’s hearing, Judge Hogan ticked through the events at issue in the case. Hogan said the timeline and evidence supports the conclusion that Tanios and Khater timed their use of the chemical spray “to coincide with the other rioters’ efforts to forcibly remove the bike rack barriers preventing the rioters from moving closer to the Capitol building.”

“In other words,” Hogan said, “they played a role in the ultimate breach in the attack on the Capitol.”

More than 430 people have been charged so far in connection with the Capitol riot, and prosecutors have said at least 100 more could still face charges. At least 40 Pennsylvanians are among the more than 400 people who have been arrested for participating in the violent attack. The figure is second highest of any state in the country, behind only Texas.

 

NPR’s Investigative and News Apps teams have published a database of everyone arrested so far in connection with the Capitol riot. This area of reporting is ongoing, and the database is being updated.

Loading…