- A father and son duo face a maximum sentence of 8 years in prison for assaulting police.
- Feds said the son hit a police officer with a skateboard emblazoned with the words "White Fang."
On January 6, 2021, Grady Owens struck a triumphant tone as he recorded his time at the Capitol and watched his fellow rioters.
"Hold these traitors accountable," he said. "Tear gas ain't shit, folks," he declared, according to court papers.
"We will not concede."
Almost two years later, though, Owens, 22, and his father have done just that in the face of criminal charges stemming from their role in the Capitol attack.
Owens and his father, Jason Owens, pleaded guilty Thursday to charges they assaulted police during the January 6 attack on the Capitol, where prosecutors said their actions helped disrupt the peaceful transfer of power from then-President Donald Trump to President Joe Biden.
In court papers, federal prosecutors alleged that the younger Owens struck a police officer with a skateboard — emblazoned with the words "White Fang" — and that his father pushed another police officer hard enough to snap his head back. The officer struck by Grady Owens was making his way through the west lawn of the Capitol, joined by more than 30 officers with the DC Metropolitan Police, in response to a request for assistance from the Capitol police, prosecutors said.
Later, prosecutors said, the father-and-son duo joined a crowd that unsuccessfully attempted to push their way into the Capitol through the East Rotunda doors, where Jason Owens grabbed a police officer's baton and struggled for it before being pushed away.
The FBI arrested Grady Owens on April 1 in Florida following a manhunt aided by the Twitter account @SeditionHunters, which an agent described as helping law enforcement in identifying members of the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol on January 6. In the aftermath of the January 6, nearly 900 accused members of that mob have been arrested in connection with the Capitol attack.
Owens' father was arrested two weeks after, on April 16, in Austin, Texas, according to court records.
Grady and Jason Owens each face a maximum sentence of 8 years in prison, according to the US attorney's office in Washington, DC.
Chief Judge Beryl Howell is set to sentence them on February 24 at a federal courthouse just blocks from the Capitol.