January 6 Capitol Attack: Former NFL Linebacker Charged in Connection

A former National Football League linebacker has been arrested on Thursday and charged with attacking police during the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol, as per the documents. Former Detroit Lion Antwione Williams, 31, drafted in 2016 and who had played for the XFL’s DC Defenders prior to signing up with the football team in the new United States Football League now in operation, was alleged to have been among the first invaders of the scattered Capitol perimeter of the big siege a fortnight ago, as charged in a criminal complaint filed in the US Attorney’s Office of Washington, DC.

The complaint also describes how Williams rushed through a group of rioters that formed… and attacked and overpowered the U.S. Capitol Police officers.”He was also alleged to have been caught on similar video attacking an officer who was “applying spray to ensure those in the riot did not capture one of the bike racks used to keep back the mob,” the document adds. Williams then “attempted to strike two officers and pushed two officers” when demonstrators tried to force their way through a police barrier, the complaint alleges.

Former NFL player and former linebacker Kellen Winslow II reached the Capitol after the FBI identified him based on a tip in December 2022 when they released images of people who invaded the area. The agents further identified him by comparing the riot pictures with the snaps in his social media profile, the complaint noted. Prosecutors said that during the riot, one witness saw Williams holding a red metallic key fob for a Chevrolet vehicle hanging on his waist, and police later found a similar-looking fob hanging from Williams’ belt loop when he was arrested.

There’s also a photograph posted in Instagram where he has captioned the photograph showing him wearing the same golf hat he donned at the capitol on January 6th, the complainant said. Williams was arrested in Savannah, Georgia, on Thursday and is charged with several counts of assaulting police officers, obstructing the same, engaging in civil unrest, trespassing on Capitol grounds, and engaging in disorderly conduct in the Capitol. Williams was not asked to plead to the charges Thursday when he made his first appearance before a Savannah magistrate. Bond was granted, and the suspect will need to be back in court on the 21st of Nov in Washington. An attorney who defended Williams in court said he was not available to comment Friday to CNN.

As rioters stormed back into the West Plaza, Williams began chanting, ‘U.S.A.!’ and celebratory pounded his fists above his head, the complaint states. “Williams then spent a couple of minutes tending to the effects of having been sprayed during that push before he walked to the Lower West Terrace.” More than 140 law enforcement officers were attacked, and facilities sustain a record of more than $2,000,000, stated the US Attorney Office in DC last week for the January 6 attack.

Over 1,561 individuals across almost every state in the United States have been prosecuted at the federal level with reference to the attack, and over 590 of these individuals have been prosecuted for attacking or sideswiping police officers or hindering those officers in the commission of a civil unrest, according to the Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. There have been 979 guilty pleas and 210 trial convictions.