Connecticut man charged in attack on police officer trapped between doors at Capitol riot

Tom Winter and David K. Li

The FBI arrested a Connecticut man for allegedly assaulting a Washington, D.C., police officer who was seen in viral videos trapped between doors during the Capitol riot, authorities said Wednesday.

Patrick Edward McCaughey was taken into custody at around 7 p.m. Tuesday in White Plains, New York, and charged with assaulting a police officer, civil disorder and unlawful entry, officials said.

The Justice Department criminal complaint says McCaughey repeatedly told the officer “just go home” and “come on man, you are going to get squished, just go home” while allegedly using a police shield against the officer during the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol Building.

Despite the excruciating pain Officer Daniel Hodges appeared to be in during the attack, he later told reporters he was happy to do his duty.

“If it wasn’t my job, I would have done that for free," he said. "It was absolutely my pleasure to crush a white nationalist insurrection, and we’ll do it as many times as it takes.”

The charging document says McCaughey pinned Hodges’ body between the riot shield and the lower West Terrace door as “a separate rioter begins violently ripping off Officer Hodges’ gas mask, exposing Officer Hodges’ bloodied mouth.”

McCaughey was allegedly seen leaving the Capitol on security cameras after he struck other officers with the shield, the document says.

Messages left by NBC News for McCaughey, 23, and his family, at publicly listed phone numbers based in Ridgefield, Connecticut, were not not immediately returned on Wednesday afternoon.

Rioters, supporters of former President Donald Trump who had just attended a rally where Trump had spoken, mobbed the U.S. Capitol and delayed Congress' formal acceptance of Electoral College votes that secured Joe Biden's win.

“The vicious attack on Officer Hodges was abhorrent and quintessentially un-American,” Acting U.S. Attorney Michael R. Sherwin said in a statement.

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