Former Tennessee deputy charged with assaulting police officers during Capitol riots

August 21st, 2021

Awake Goy

npr.brightspotcdn.com — Image Credit: fbi.gov

Accused of attempting to strike a
Metropolitan police officer and drag another cop into the mob storming the U.S.
Capitol building, a former Tennessee sheriff’s deputy was recently charged with
assaulting officers, inflicting bodily injury, and entering restricted grounds
with a weapon.

On January 6, Williamson County
sheriff’s deputy Ronald McAbee was recorded on video storming the Capitol while
wearing a red MAGA hat and black
tactical vest with a sheriff patch. According to police body cam footage,
Deputy McAbee and several other rioters dragged a Metropolitan Police
Department (MPD) officer to the ground while repeatedly striking him in the
head and body.

When another MPD officer attempted
to help his fallen colleague, McAbee allegedly attempted to strike the second
officer. McAbee was arrested Tuesday after the FBI received a tip concerning
his exposed
identity on police body cam footage during the Capitol riots.

McAbee has been named along with
six other co-defendants, including Jack Whitton, who allegedly attacked an MPD
officer with a crutch,
and Jeffrey Sobol, who allegedly choked an officer with a baton. The former
deputy was charged with Assaulting, Resisting or Impeding Certain Officers
Inflicting Bodily Injury and Aiding and Abetting; Assaulting Resisting or
Impeding Certain Officers; Entering and Remaining in a Restricted Building or
Grounds with a Deadly or Dangerous Weapon; and Disorderly and Disruptive
Conduct in a Restricted Building or Grounds with a Deadly or Dangerous Weapon.

Employed as a detention
deputy with the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office since November 9, 2020,
McAbee was on leave at the time of the Capitol riots due to a shoulder and hip
injury from a car accident on December 27, 2020. According to court records,
McAbee ceased working at the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office on March 23,
2021. Prior to moving to Tennessee, he was employed as a sheriff’s deputy at
the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia.

In the seven months since January
6, more than 570
individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related
to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including over 170 individuals charged with
assaulting or impeding law enforcement.