Two Montana brothers who were seen at the front of a mob chasing a lone Black officer during the deadly Capitol riot on Jan. 6 are now facing multiple federal charges.
Joshua Calvin Hughes and Jerod Wade Hughes were accused of being among the first 10 rioters to break into the US Capitol building and ambushing Officer Eugene Goodman, who has been hailed as a hero for luring the aggressive mob away from the Senate, where former vice president Mike Pence and other members of Congress were certifying the election results.
The brothers were charged Thursday with several offenses, including obstructing an official proceeding, obstructing or interfering with law enforcement during a civil disorder, entering the Capitol without authorization and with an intention to disrupt official business, and destroying property. They could not be immediately reached for comment.
Four days after the riot, both men reported in person to the Helena Police Department in Montana after seeing themselves on news coverage and believing they were wanted by the FBI, according to a criminal complaint.
After an FBI agent interviewed them, the brothers said they wanted to turn themselves in. They provided their contact information to the FBI and were allowed to return home.
Surveillance videos and social media footage documented how the brothers were allegedly among the first group of rioters who broke open windows and stormed the Capitol building at around 2:13 p.m.
Once inside, Jerod Hughes was caught on video kicking open a door until the lock broke to let other rioters enter the Capitol, according to the complaint.
The brothers then allegedly worked their way to the front of a mob that was advancing to the Senate floor and joined Douglas Austin Jensen, who was confronting Goodman, the sole Capitol officer present at the time. Jensen was arrested and charged for his role in the riot.
Along with other rioters, the brothers refused to comply with Goodman's repeated commands to leave the building and instead advanced toward him "in a menacing manner," the complaint said.
Prosecutors said Jensen was the primary aggressor, followed immediately by the Hughes brothers, who were seen chasing Goodman up a flight of stairs in a viral video taken by HuffPost reporter Igor Bobic.
Here’s the scary moment when protesters initially got into the building from the first floor and made their way outside Senate chamber.
On the second floor, Goodman positioned himself between the rioters and the Senate chamber, which was yet to be evacuated.
He realized he could not prevent the mob from storming the Senate floor by himself, so he baited the rioters into following him away from the Senate floor and into an adjacent hallway, the complaint said.
Once there, several other Capitol officers joined him and tried to quell the mob members, who far outnumbered them. Unable to arrest so many rioters at once, officers reported that they tried to deescalate the situation but were met with "shouting and aggression," including cries of "this is our house" and "we're here for the corrupt government."
Officers reported that after they'd managed to deescalate tensions with the mob, the rioters, including Joshua and Jerod Hughes, left the atrium and entered the Senate floor, which had since been evacuated.
The brothers and other rioters were then seen sitting on senators' chairs, opening their desks, and reviewing sensitive material, the complaint said.
Officer Goodman, whose actions helped protect Pence and other members of Congress, was named the acting deputy Senate sergeant at arms and escorted Vice President Kamala Harris at the inauguration last week.
The brothers are among at least 164 people who are facing federal charges for their roles in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, according to a database created by George Washington University's Program on Extremism.