Maryland Police Officer Convicted for Throwing Smoke Bomb at Fellow Officers During Capitol Riot

Washington, D.C. Friday, a Maryland police officer was found guilty of charges that he helped a mob attack the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and threw a smoke bomb and other things at police guarding a tunnel opening.

This week, U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden found Montgomery County Police Officer Justin Lee guilty of two felonies and three crimes after hearing evidence without a jury for two days. Lee was also found not guilty of two other crimes by the judge. He will be sentenced on Nov. 22.

Lee, 26, lit a smoke bomb and threw it into the opening of a tunnel on the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol. There, a group of rioters attacked a group of police officers who were outnumbered. Prosecutors say the device hit a police officer’s riot shield and sent a big cloud of smoke out of the tunnel’s entrance.

McFadden said, “No police officer should have to deal with these attacks and threats.”

Lee, who is still free until his sentencing, didn’t seem to react when the judge read his sentence out loud. After the meeting, his lawyer wouldn’t say anything.

When Lee was arrested in October of last year, the cops said they had put him on leave without pay. Shiera Goff, a spokesperson for the department, said that now that Lee has been found guilty, police will “move forward with termination procedures.”

“The actions of one person do not define the department as a whole,” the department said in a statement last year.

Lee, from Rockville, Maryland, put in an application to be a police officer in Montgomery County in July 2021, which was six months after the attack. The police said they hired Lee about a year after the riot and didn’t find out about his possible role in the attack until July 2023, when they heard the FBI was looking into him.

Videos show Lee outside the Capitol with a gaiter with the design of the Maryland flag over his face. Besides his clothes, he wore a medical bag that looked like it belonged in the military.

Prosecutors say Lee waved at other rioters to get ahead of the police as the crowd attacked a line of cops on the West Plaza. The judge said Lee moved to the Lower West Terrace and threw the smoke bomb and three other “rock-like objects” at police who were watching the tunnel. Police said Lee later used a flashlight to “spotlight” police officers inside the cave with other rioters.

Lee said he was “just trying to make a statement” about police brutality because he had seen cops use force against other protesters that day. The judge didn’t believe him. He also said that he thinks Lee went to the Capitol on January 6 with the goal of stopping Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s win over Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

Terrell Roberts III, the defense lawyer, said that the assault charge in this case only applies to actions that involve touching the person who was assaulted. Robert said that the rage shield kept the smoking device from touching the officer’s body.

“Sending a man to prison when the evidence doesn’t prove every part of the crime is wrong,” he wrote before the trial.

Lee was charged with seven things. Two felonies were found in his favor: interfering with police during a civil disorder and assaulting, resisting, or blocking officers. He was also found guilty of disorderly conduct and trespassing, which are both misdemeanors.

However, the judge also found him not guilty of two minor counts of assault. According to McFadden, the authorities didn’t provide enough proof that Lee had done something violent.

The police department says Lee had been on administrative leave since July 22, 2023, when he shot and killed a guy who they thought was stabbing four people. The police department said Lee hadn’t been doing his job as a police officer since the shooting. However, his unpaid absence was due to the charges he faced on January 6.

In Silver Spring, Maryland, on the day of last year’s killing, police were called to a thrift store for a stabbing and found a suspect holding a butcher’s knife. Police said in a news release that the culprit refused to drop the knife and lunged at Lee before being shot by an officer.

Police said that one of the four people who were stabbed was seriously hurt. A police officer told reporters that all of the people who were attacked were likely to survive what he called “unprovoked” attacks.

There are more than 1,400 people who have been charged with federal crimes connected to the Capitol riot. More than 900 of them have said they are guilty. More than 200 others have been found guilty by a judge or a jury.

After a hearing, only two of the people charged on January 6 have been found not guilty of all charges. McFadden found one of them not guilty after a hearing without a jury. The man was from Mexico.