Houston man gets six years in prison for assaulting police officers with bear spray and whip-like weapon during Jan. 6 insurrection – Houston Public Media

A Houston man who was reported to the FBI after discussing his involvement in the U.S. Capitol insurrection on a dating app was sentenced this week to more than six years in prison for assaulting police officers with anti-spray. bear and a weapon similar to a whip.

Andrew Taake, 35, pleaded guilty last December to assaulting, resisting or obstructing certain police officers by using a dangerous weapon, a felony, according to federal court records. He was sentenced Wednesday to 74 months in prison followed by 36 months of supervised release, as well as ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution for his role in the deadly riot in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021.

Several other criminal charges against Taake were dismissed as part of a plea deal, according to court records, which include a victim impact statement from a police officer who worked at the Capitol and was hit with bear spray .

“I was immediately blindsided,” the officer wrote in his statement. “It was the most intense pain I had ever felt. It was like experiencing death.”

Taake’s defense attorneys did not immediately respond Thursday to an email seeking comment.

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

Taake, who has been in federal custody since his July 2021 arrest in Houston, was out of jail on bail in early January of that year, following an online solicitation for a minor 2016 county charge by Harris. This case remains ongoing, according to court records.

Taake is among a dozen people in the Houston area who have been charged or convicted of crimes related to the 2021 insurrection, according to a database compiled by the U.S. Department of Justice. A mob of supporters of then-President Donald Trump disrupted a joint session of Congress and attempted to stop lawmakers from certifying the 2020 presidential results in favor of Joe Biden, leaving five people dead in an attack that injured more than 100 police officers and killed millions. dollars in damages, according to court documents.

Days after the riot, Taake spoke about his involvement with a woman on the dating app Bumble who then relayed their exchange to the FBI, according to a criminal complaint filed in court. The charging document also shows that investigators used the app to verify that Taake was in the Washington, D.C. area on January 6, 2021, in addition to airline flight records that showed he had traveled from Houston to Baltimore on January 5 and returned on January 5. 8.

FBI agents also used body-worn camera footage of Capitol officers as well as publicly released photos and videos to identify Taake as having participated in the insurrection, according to court records. The footage showed Taake spraying police with bear spray at one point, then later hitting officers with a metal weapon resembling a whip that he carried inside the building, according to court documents.

Social media photos showing Taake in a crowd outside the Capitol were shown in May 2021 to a mail delivery driver who had just delivered a package to Taake’s Houston home, and the driver identified Taake as being the man in the photos, according to court records.