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Long Island resident John O’Kelly, age 66, of the hamlet of East Williston in North Hempstead, was arrested at home Thursday, Oct. 20.
He’s facing multiple felony charges for his alleged actions that day in “disrupting a joint session of the US Congress,” which had convened to count the electoral votes from the 2020 presidential election, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said.
Federal prosecutors said O’Kelly was near the west side of the Capitol grounds as rioters were fighting with law enforcement officers who were attempting to maintain a police barrier.
Shortly before 2:30 p.m., he emerged from the crowd and grabbed a police officer’s baton, attempting to take the weapon from the officer, prosecutors said.
The officer fought back and was ultimately able to keep the baton in his possession.
O’Kelly then took a step back before pushing a metal bike rack that was being used to secure the area into the line of officers, according to investigators.
In the months following the riots, the FBI released numerous BOLO (be on the lookout) photos to the public in an effort to identify suspects.
One of those photos, labeled BOLO 294, was circulated on Twitter by the civilian group Sedition Hunters, one of several accounts that crowdsource and share information to help identify FBI BOLOs from the Capitol riot.
Accompanying the photo was the hashtag, #MidWhiteCrisis.
In July 2021, a tipster contacted the FBI saying the person in BOLO 294 was O’Kelly. The agency then compared the photo to New York DMV photos and positively identified the suspect as O’Kelly, according to investigators.
O’Kelly is accused of multiple felony and misdemeanor crimes, including assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers, engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds, and civic disorder.
Following his arraignment in US District Court in the Eastern District of New York, O’Kelly was released on $100,000 bond.
A law enforcement source told Daily Voice he was being represented by the Long Island Federal Defenders Office, which defends people charged with federal crimes who cannot afford to hire an attorney, according to its website.
In the 21 months since Jan. 6, 2021, nearly 900 individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the US Capitol, including over 265 who were charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.
The investigation is still ongoing.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or visit tips.fbi.gov.
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