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An Indiana man was arrested Wednesday for allegedly assaulting law enforcement and other charges related to his conduct during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced that Nicholas Scott Ingram Hofer, 34, of Carbon, is charged in a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia with felony offenses of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers and civil disorder.
According to a DOJ news release, in addition to the felonies, Hofer is charged with several misdemeanor offenses, including entering and remaining in restricted grounds or buildings, disorderly and disruptive conduct in restricted grounds or buildings, engaging in physical violence in restricted grounds or buildings, and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building or grounds, committing an act of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or buildings.
Hofer self-surrendered at the federal courthouse in Indianapolis Wednesday, and he was scheduled to make his initial court appearance in the Southern District of Indiana, according to the DOJ.
According to court documents, it is alleged that on Jan. 6, 2021, Hofer was identified among a crowd of rioters on the West Plaza of the U.S. Capitol building and was later seen among the crowd of rioters that had breached a police line protecting the Northwest Stairs of the building.
After breaching this line, the rioters, including Hofer, surged up the stairs and confronted an additional police line. There, Hofer was toward the front of the crowd of rioters and allegedly began pushing other rioters and a bike rack barricade into and toward the police line. The police line retreated up the stairs, and the rioters, including Hofer, pursued.
At the top of the stairs, the rioters walked over downed barricades and approached the U.S. Capitol building on the Senate side.
At approximately 2:13 p.m., rioters broke out two windows next to an egress-only fire door/emergency exit, often referred to as the Senate Wing Door, and jumped inside.
The rioters then broke open the Senate Wing Door from the inside, setting off a blaring alarm and allowing rioters, including Hofer, to enter through the broken door. Court documents say that as Hofer entered the building, he raised his arms in the air.
Inside the building, it is alleged that Hofer picked up a wooden exhibit stand and threw it.
It is alleged that at approximately 2:30 p.m., Hofer and other rioters attempted to breach the East Rotunda Door. There, a small group of USCP officers stood between those rioters and entry into the Capitol. Those officers were repeatedly assaulted by the rioters.
At about 3:11 p.m., officers forced Hofer out of the Rotunda, and he exited the building through the East Rotunda Door. In total, he spent about 38 minutes inside the Capitol.
This case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Department of Justice National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section, with assistance was provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana.
The case is being investigated by the FBI’s Indianapolis and Washington Field Offices with assistance provided by the U.S. Capitol Police, the Metropolitan Police Department, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Services.
There was no attorney listed as representing Hofer in PACER court records.
The case is United States of America v. Nicholas Scott Ingram Hofer, 1:24-mj-261.
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