DFW men were charged with assault on Jan. 6 in Washington, DC

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Donald Hazard, 43, of Hurst was accused of physically assaulting U.S. Capitol Police officers on Jan. 6. Court documents identified Hazard in this footage when he entered the Senate Parliamentarian office. Department of Justice United States District Court for the District of Columbia

Two men from the Dallas-Fort Worth area were arrested Monday and charged with assaulting police officers during the riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Donald Hazard, 43, of Hurst, and Lucas Denney, 44, of Mansfield, were charged with physically assaulting U.S. Capitol Police officers on Jan. 6. They were charged with committing physical violence in a restricted building or yard, civil unrest, obstructing an official trial, and assault, resisting or obstructing officers using a dangerous weapon or resulting in bodily injury.

Denney and Hazard used social media to recruit people into Denney’s white supremacist militia group, the Patriot Boys of North Texas, according to Department of Justice and court documents. On December 30, 2020, Denney posted on Facebook a photo with the text, “Occupy Congress” and “the great betrayal is over.” Post removed the same day.

On Dec. 21, according to court documents, Denney texted Hazard and said a militia meeting “[w]great man. We are all good and solid. Trump himself is calling for a big protest in DC on January 6th. I will not miss this one. If you can go, there is a fee. ”

The two exchanged messages about various tactical gear they plan to wear in Washington, including bump helmets, body armor and safety glasses.

A video taken by the Washington Post shows Hazard, wearing tactical equipment, marching into Washington on Jan. 6. In the video, Hazard told the camera person, “Make sure you get my face and everything in your news channel. I want the protagonist to know who’s next to them. ”

On Jan. 6, Denney and Hazard joined other riots on the west side of the Capitol as they shouted at police guarding the building, according to court documents.

By 2:56 pm, Hazard was inside the building and in a hallway near the Parliamentarian Door, according to video footage. He briefly entered the Parliamentarian’s office, court documents say, then proceeded down the hallway, further into the building. Hazard posted videos of himself on Facebook that “blow on [U.S. Capitol] bldg “at”[t]encouraged everyone to come down and help ‘change the building like a real patriot,” court documents said.

Minutes later, officers began to corral people back to the Parliamentarian Door. Footage shows Hazard wrestling with U.S. Capitol Police officers as he fell down a set of stairs under the scaffolding erected on the west side of the building. Hazard fights with an officer as they both fall; the officer lost consciousness and sustained injuries to his head, leg and arm, according to the Department of Justice.

Denney was accused of launching a large pipe at one officer, taking a canister of crowd-control spray from another and swinging a long metal pole at a third officer. At 3:12 p.m., he entered a tunnel leading to the Capitol building, carrying either a baton or a stick, according to court documents. He and other rioters tried to enter the building and, on the stairs of the Capitol building, he slapped his fist on an officer and pulled the officer down the stairs outside the building, court documents say.

The men commented on Facebook about their participation in the riot, according to court documents. Hazard wrote that “he had to fight some cops.” On Jan. 14, he responded to a user in a Facebook comment and said, “I found out that the worst I ever faced was a misdemeanor. Now, I hope I don’t delete my photos and videos. ”

Both men appeared in court Tuesday in the Northern District of Texas and remain in custody pending further proceedings.

The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Counterterrorism Section of the Department of Justice’s National Security Division. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas assisted with the investigation, the DOJ said in a press release.

The case is being investigated by the Fort Worth Resident Agency of the FBI’s Dallas Field Office, along with the FBI’s Washington Field Office. Del Rio, the Texas Resident Agency of the FBI’s San Antonio Office, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Hurst Police Department, the Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. Capitol Police also assisted in the investigation.

In the 11 months since Jan. 6, more than 700 people have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to violating the U.S. Capitol, the DOJ said. More than 220 individuals have been charged with assault or obstruction of law enforcement.

This story was originally published on December 14, 2021 8:05 PM.

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Kaley Johnson is a breaking news and enterprise reporter. She graduated in investigative reporting at the University of Missouri-Columbia and has a passion for bringing readers deep, complex stories that will affect their lives. Send your tips via email or Twitter.

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