A federal grand jury has accused a California man of using a flagpole and stun gun to attack a Metropolitan Police Officer during the January 6 Capitol insurrection, the Justice Department announced this week.
Daniel Rodriguez, 38, of Fontana, California, was arrested by agents with the FBI’s Los Angeles field office Wednesday. A federal grand jury indicted him on eight separate counts, including theft and destruction of government property, entering the Capitol building without authority with a deadly weapon, and assaulting D.C. Police Officer Mike Fanone with “an electroshock weapon and a flagpole.”
Fanone, a 19-year veteran with the Metropolitan Police Department, described to DCist/WAMU earlier this year how supporters of former President Donald Trump surrounded him, knocked him to the ground, beat him, and threatened to kill him with his own gun. Fanone recalled being shocked with a stun gun multiple times. The attack happened after Trump, who refused to accept his loss in the November election, gave a speech encouraging his followers to “fight like hell” and march to the Capitol. Two U.S. Capitol Police officers have since sued Trump for inciting the crowd.
“It was some medieval shit,” Fanone said. “It was like the real-life 300, minus the six-pack abs, which none of us have.”
Trump-supporters grabbed Fanone’s badge, pummeled him from all sides, and stole his ammo magazines, he said. After considering using his gun on the attackers, Fanone told the mob he had kids, hoping they’d have mercy on him. Eventually, some people in the crowd started defending him, and his partner was able to pull him to safety. Later, at the hospital, Fanone learned he’d suffered a mild heart attack.
“The ones in the crowd that somehow appealed to their better angels and offered me some assistance, thank you,” he said. “But fuck you for being there.”

Rodriguez can face up to 20 years in prison for the assault charge alone, the Washington Post reported. He’s also charged with breaking a window of the Capitol and stealing an emergency escape hood used to protect members of Congress from chemical weapons.
The FBI is investigating the case with MPD and the Capitol Police. Rodriguez is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. and the Justice Department’s counterterrorism division, and he’s set to have a federal detention hearing in D.C. on Friday, April 2.
Elliot C. Williams