WASHINGTON — A Florida man whose younger half-brother was convicted last year of participating in the Capitol riot was arrested Wednesday for allegedly assaulting police on Jan. 6.
David Kennedy Homol, 55, of Umatilla, Florida, faces felony charges of obstruction of an official proceeding, civil disorder and assaulting, resisting or impeding police.
According to charging documents, investigators became aware of Homol’s alleged acts at the Capitol while preparing for the trial of his younger half-brother Dillon Homol, who was convicted in September of four misdemeanor counts but acquitted of a more serious felony count of obstruction. The younger Homol had been preparing to call his older half-brother as a witness in his case when investigators discovered video showing the two of them walking to the Capitol together. Photos included in the statement of facts show the elder Homol wearing a red backpack, a red, white and blue scarf and carrying an American flag secured to a PVC pipe.
Investigators say public-source video shows the Homols making their way to the west front of the Capitol, where at some point the elder Homol puts on a black helmet and pulls his scarf up over his face. During a melee between police and rioters around 2:12 p.m. – approximately a minute before the first breach of the building – investigators say the elder Homol can be seen swinging the PVC pipe flagpole multiple times at police officers. In one image included in charging documents, a man identified as Homol can be seen swinging a PVC pipe down on an officer’s back as they are bent over. Another image appears to show an officer attempting to wrest the pipe away from Homol’s grasp.
Later in the day, investigators say Homol sent his younger half-brother a text reading, “Today was not an antifa-inspired statement. It was totally done by angry Trump supporters with no firearms, many singing GOD bless America, Jesus saves, etc.”
Homol was expected to make his initial appearance in the Middle District of Florida. Dillon Homol was scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 18 in D.C. District Court. In a sentencing memo filed this week, prosecutors asked for a prison term of two years followed by a year of supervised release and 60 hours of community service. Dillon Homol, who said in his memo he was invited to travel to D.C. on Jan. 6 by his brother, is seeking a probationary sentence.