US soldier charged with assaulting police officer during Capitol riot

A U.S. Military soldier has been arrested in Hawaii on expenses that he repeatedly struck a police officer with a flagpole throughout a mob’s assault on the U.S. Capitol greater than three years in the past, in response to court docket data unsealed Wednesday.

Alexander Cain Poplin was arrested Tuesday at Schofield Barracks, an Military set up close to Honolulu. Poplin, 31, of Wahiawa, Hawaii, was scheduled to make his preliminary look in federal court docket Wednesday.

The FBI acquired a tip in February 2021 that Poplin had posted on Fb about attacking police in the course of the Capitol riot. Poplin wrote that “we took our home again” and “stood for one thing,” in response to an FBI job drive officer’s affidavit.

In July 2024, the FBI investigator interviewed Poplin’s navy supervisor, who recognized him in {a photograph} displaying him carrying an Military camouflage backpack contained in the restricted space of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Poplin attended then-President Donald Trump’s “Cease the Steal” rally close to the White Home on Jan. 6. He joined the mob of Trump supporters who gathered on the Capitol, the place lawmakers had been assembly to certify President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

On the Capitol’s Decrease West Plaza, Poplin carried an “Space Closed” register his left hand and a flagpole bearing a blue flag in his proper hand. A video captured him repeatedly hanging a Metropolitan Police Division officer with the flagpole, the FBI affidavit says.

Poplin was arrested on a criticism charging him with 5 counts, together with felony expenses of interfering with police throughout a civil dysfunction and assaulting, resisting or impeding police with a harmful weapon.

An legal professional assigned to symbolize Poplin at Wednesday’s listening to in Hawaii did not instantly reply to an e mail searching for touch upon the costs.

Almost 1,500 individuals have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Many rioters had been navy veterans, however solely a handful had been on lively obligation on Jan. 6. Roughly 140 cops had been injured within the assault.

Related Press author Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed.