Brownsburg man admits to assaulting officers with flagpoles in Capitol riot
WASHINGTON (WISH) — A Brownsburg, Indiana, man has pleaded guilty to trying to grab barricades from police officers and assaulting them with flagpoles during the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Columbia said Friday.
Troy Allen Koen, 54, pleaded guilty to a count of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers. U.S. District Chief Judge James Boasberg will sentence Koen on Feb. 26.
The FBI arrested Koen on Nov. 9, 2023, in Indianapolis.
Redacted court documents had images of Koen from video at the Capitol riot.
Investigators found that Koen, after moving beyond bike racks being used as barriers, carried a large, white pole with two flags — one read “TRUMP 2020” and the other was a Confederate flag — while going into a Capitol tunnel. Court documents say the flagpole was Koen’s.
A news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office said, “With the flagpole in hand, Koen made his way through the crowd and to the front of the pack of rioters. There, the rioters faced the closed double glass doors that served as a barrier to their entrance to the Capitol building. As one rioter then bashed the glass door with an unknown object in his hand, Koen, at the same time, lifted his flagpole above his shoulder and began to jab the flagpole into the glass. The glass door shattered as Koen continued to jab his flagpole through it, which allowed the rioters to reach through the broken glass and open the door.
“Koen then disassembled the flagpole into two separate pieces.
“After the glass was broken and doors opened, rioters immediately started to push against the police officer line. Officers inside the Tunnel yelled, ‘HOLD THE LINE!’ as the onslaught continued. Koen remained at the forefront of the group and quickly started to use two flagpoles to jab the flagpoles into the officers repeatedly. As officers held their ground, rioters continued to attack, using their collective body weight to push against the police line, strike police with batons and flag poles, and spray chemical irritants into the Tunnel. While this occurred, Koen remained at the forefront of the mob of rioters.
“Koen exited the Tunnel at about 2:47 p.m. without his flagpoles in hand.”
