Clearwater Man Hit Officer With Bat During U.S. Capitol Riot: U.S. DOJ

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Clearwater man accused of hitting a law enforcement officer with a baseball bat during the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol building faces multiple charges, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.

Joel Linn O’Donnell, 44, was part of the mob that disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress to count the electoral votes related to the 2020 presidential election. He was arrested Thursday in Clearwater.

Charges against O’Donnell include assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers with a deadly or dangerous weapon; assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers; obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; and engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon.

He was also charged with two misdemeanors, including disorderly conduct in a Capitol building and an act of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or buildings, the DOJ said.

The day of the riot, O’Donnell attended a rally near the ellipse in Washington, D.C., and afterward, joined a large crowd marching toward the U.S. Capitol. Once on Capitol grounds, he positioned himself at the Lower West Plaza.

Then, he and another person moved closer to the Capitol building, moving from the West Front to the Upper West Terrace. There, he joined a mass of rioters on temporary stadium-style risers who were throwing objects at officers nearby and chanting “traitors" at them, the DOJ said.

O’Donnell moved toward the Lower West Terrace Tunnel while carrying a large step and two long poles just before 5 p.m. Moments later, he threw all three items at the officers defending the tunnel, the DOJ said.

Just after 5 p.m., O’Donnell returned to the police line with a baseball bat and repeatedly hit a Metropolitan Police Department officer with it, striking the officer’s riot shield, according to the DOJ.

He only left the tunnel area after police used riot control munitions to disperse the crowd.