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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A California man charged with assaulting police in the Jan. 6 riot on the U.S. Capitol and utilizing a metallic barricade as a battering ram has fled the United States and is believed to have taken refuge in Belarus, federal prosecutors stated on Friday.
Evan Neumann, 49, was indicted on Friday on 14 prison counts stemming from the lethal Capitol siege by supporters of then-President Donald Trump, increasing on fees initially contained in a prison grievance filed towards Neumann in March.
Neumann, of Mill Valley, California, close to San Francisco, was seen in video footage donning a fuel masks whereas standing close to police in entrance of barricades arrange on the base of the West Front of the Capitol Building, prosecutors stated in a press release.
According to paperwork filed in the case, Neumann later removes his fuel masks and shouts on the police, “I’m prepared to die, are you?” earlier than he bodily assaults a number of officers and rushes into them utilizing a barricade as a battering ram.
Neumann, who has but to make a courtroom look in the case, fled from the United States on Feb. 16 and “is at the moment believed to be in Belarus,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia stated in a press release.
According to an account revealed by information outlet the Daily Beast, Neumann was featured final month in a Belarusian state tv particular titled “Goodbye, America,” recounting his journey to the previous Soviet republic and its capital, Minsk.
He stated on this system that he was searching for political asylum in Belarus as a result of the United States, in his opinion, is not a rustic of legislation and order, the Daily Beast reported.
Neumann is one in every of greater than 220 people charged with assaulting or impeding legislation enforcement in the course of the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, which disrupted a joint session of Congress assembly to formally certify the November 2020 presidential election victory of Democrat Joe Biden over Trump, the Republican incumbent.
Neumann is believed to be the one worldwide fugitive charged in reference to the Capitol riot.
The siege adopted a rally close to the White House earlier that day in which Trump exhorted supporters to march on the Capitol throughout a speech in which he repeated false claims that the election was stolen from him by widespread voting fraud.
Four individuals died the day of the riot, and one Capitol police officer died the following day of accidents sustained whereas defending Congress. Hundreds of police had been injured in the course of the multi-hour melee and 4 officers have since taken their very own lives.
(Reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington; Writing and extra reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
