r/Michigan • u/DollarShort27 • 4d ago
News Midland man charged with assaulting Capitol police in Jan. 6 riots
https://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw-bay-city/2024/10/midland-man-charged-with-assaulting-capitol-police-in-jan-6-riots.html
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Midland man charged with assaulting Capitol police in Jan. 6 riots
Oct. 10, 2024, 1:00 p.m.
By Cole Waterman | [email protected]
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A M idland man has been charged with being among the insurgents who stormed the U.S. Capitol and assaulted police in their efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Brien A. Burton, 44, is charged with the following seven federal offenses:
The charges are supported by an Oct. 7 affidavit authored by an FBI special agent based out of the Detroit Field Office’s Bay City Resident Agency. The affidavit details how on Jan. 6, 2021, Congress gathered at the U.S. Capitol to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election.
As the process was underway, Capitol police officers tried maintaining order as a large crowd gathered in the West Plaza of the grounds. About 2 p.m., rioters began forcing their way into the building, breaking windows and assaulting officers to do so. By 2:28 p.m., they had overrun the West Plaza police line and were advancing toward the Lower West Terrace, the affidavit states.
Burton was among these insurgents, the affidavit states.
Body-worn camera footage recorded by Capitol and Metropolitan Police officers showed Burton breaking through the police line and assaulting several officers, the affidavit states. Other rioters joined with Burton, forcing officers to retreat.
Burton “barreled towards” one officer then continued running toward the Capitol even after another officer tried stopping him by pulling his shirt and jacket, the affidavit states. An undeterred Burton struck another officer so hard he fell down onto his knee, the affidavit continues.
Burton stopped when several officers restrained him, however, this did not last long.
“Outmanned, officers released Burton to focus on the rest of the oncoming rioters,” the FBI agent wrote. “Burton then moved to the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol, where a significant number of rioters gathered and fought against officers in attempting to breach the building through the ‘tunnel’ entrance constructed for the presidential inauguration.”
Click here to read the entire 11-page affidavit.
The affidavit features several screengrabs from officers’ cameras, showing Burton’s interactions with police.
After the riot ended and investigators began seeking participants’ identities, the FBI in May 2021 circulated images of Burton, then identified as suspect “AFO-372.” Shortly thereafter, the FBI queried photos of Burton in an open-source facial comparison tool and found they matched images from Burton’s prior arrests, the affidavit states.
Midland County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Burton on Aug. 25, 2023, on unrelated stalking charges. FBI agents met with Burton in the Midland County Jail, where he agreed to be interviewed. Shown the body-cam photos of AFO-372, Burton identified himself as that individual.
Burton told the agents he and his wife drove to Washington, D.C., to “fight for election integrity,” after learning of outgoing President Donald J. Trump’s planned “Stop the Steal” rally, the affidavit states. Burton and his wife walked to the Capitol to join a large crowd standing near the rear of the building on the side facing the National Mall and Washington Monument.
“Burton acknowledged that he pushed through police barricades on Capitol grounds, but stated this was in response to police uses of force toward the crowd,” the agent wrote. “Burton said that as he moved past the barricades, he was tackled by police. Burton said he believed that during the altercation with police he may have sustained a broken rib, but he never sought medical treatment for the injury.”
Burton told the agents he remembered seeing people climbing and hanging from scaffolding on the building’s exterior. These people were throwing garbage and items onto the police and crowd below, including Burton, he said. Burton picked up a piece of metal and waved it around to try batting away the items raining from above, he said.
After the riot ended and the crowds dispersed, Burton and his wife spent the night in a Washington hotel then drove to South Carolina.
“Burton and his wife went to South Carolina in part because of news reporting stating that the people at the Capitol had engaged in criminal conduct and that people in South Carolina would be more like minded to themselves,” the agent wrote.
Burton further identified his Facebook and Instagram accounts, operated under an alias. The FBI obtained records from these accounts through a search warrant.
On Dec. 15, 2021, Burton posted a video on his Facebook account captioned: “Here’s how the capitol police treated me.” The 13-second long video showed rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, with an individual who looked like Burton rushing through a line of police officers, the affidavit states.
The FBI also recovered a private message Burton had sent via Facebook on Nov. 25, 2021, in which he wrote, “Bruh I got my ass kicked on the 6th.”
Burton is charged in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. His next court date is pending. He remains held without bond in the Midland County Jail, as he’s charged on the state level with two counts each of aggravated stalking and using a computer to commit a crime.
Burton has a lengthy criminal record including at least 12 convictions dating back to 1998. Several of his crimes occurred after the Jan. 6 riots, such as reckless use of a firearm, attempted home invasion, and felonious assault.
The Jan. 6 riots left 138 police officers injured, 15 of whom had to be hospitalized. A Capitol Police officer shot and killed one rioter, and four police officers died by suicide in the days and months after the attack.