Two Brothers Charged With Assaulting Officers in Jan. 6 Riot
The New York Times
Roger and Reynold Voisine, from upstate New York, used weapons that included a pipe, a police shield and a table leg studded with nails, prosecutors said.
Two brothers from upstate New York were arrested Thursday on charges of attacking law enforcement agents at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and of participating in the violent mob that attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Roger A. Voisine Jr., 48, and Reynold R. Voisine, 47, face felony charges including civil disorder and assaulting an officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon.
The Voisine brothers started the day on Jan. 6 by attending former President Donald J. Trump’s rally at the Ellipse, in front of the White House, according to a news release issued Thursday by Matthew M. Graves, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. They appear to have prepared for trouble. As they left the rally and walked to the Capitol, each man put on a paintball mask. Roger Voisine also carried a two-way radio, a GoPro camera mounted on a stick and a tripod inside his jacket.
As the mob attacked officers with the U.S. Capitol Police and forced its way into the building, “both brothers played active roles in the day’s violence,” according to the news release.
Reynold Voisine was seen assaulting officers with a crutch, a stolen police riot shield and a blue pole, the authorities said. When images from the riot circulated online, private citizens analyzed the pictures, trying to identify individuals in the mob. The blue pole earned Reynold Voisine the online nickname #BlueJavelin, according to a statement of facts that prosecutors released.
At around 3:20 p.m., he was among a group of rioters seen violently beating an officer and dragging the officer from the Lower West Terrace Tunnel, site of some of the day’s most violent attacks against law enforcement, an officer with U.S. Customs and Border Enforcement wrote.
