An Oregon man who allegedly broke a Speaker of the House sign during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol has been arrested, authorities say.
David Medina, 34, was arrested on felony and misdemeanor charges, the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington announced Friday. He is charged with multiple misdemeanor charges, including destruction of government property, entering or remaining in a restricted area without authority and disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted area, among others.
According to court documents, Medina was identified in open-source images and video footage as slamming the wooden sign above the Speaker’s office, which read, “Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi” in an attempt to break it. He was then seen next to other rioters who were holding pieces of the broken sign, according to the documents.
After the attack, authorities said he attempted to “make light of his participation in the riot.” According to an affidavit written by an FBI special agent, a post by a Twitter user included an Instagram Live clip taken by Medina on Jan. 7 showing him describing his experience at the insurrection.
“So as these guys break into the Capitol, obviously the doors are wide open. I walk in and I am screaming ‘1776,’ cause it’s powerful man. It’s a powerful move, a powerful time,” Medina says, according to the affidavit.
He went on to say, “We weren’t, you know, breaking windows, we weren’t breaking stuff,” according to the affidavit before saying that he “kinda” broke the Speaker sign.
“Ummm, I know someone had torn down Speaker Pelosi’s wooden sign above her door and there was like fragments of it like on the ground, and I just took a piece and I just kinda broke it in half. It felt so good,” he said.
The press release announcing his arrest noted that Medina was also identified waving “an ornate American flag,” which authorities said appeared to be an indoor ceremonial flag taken from inside the Capitol.
More than 1,133 people have been charged in nearly every state since the attack on the Capitol, which includes more than 469 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, according to the D.C. U.S. attorney’s office.