WASHINGTON — A Missouri man was arrested Wednesday on felony charges for allegedly assaulting police outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Jack Westly Ryan, 62, of Warrensburg, was charged this week with two felony counts of civil disorder and assaulting, resisting or impeding police and five other misdemeanors for his alleged role in the Capitol riot. He made his initial appearance in a federal court in Missouri on Wednesday.
According to charging documents, Ryan watched former President Donald Trump’s speech at the Ellipse on Jan. 6 before making his way to the Capitol, where he believed Trump planned to march. Investigators say Ryan was on the west side of the Capitol when a group of officers attempting to get to the building were “taunted and met physical resistance” from the crowd – including, they say, Ryan.
Investigators say bodyworn camera footage shows Ryan shoving at least two DC Police officers who were attempting to reinforce Capitol Police inside the building. Afterward, according to charging documents, Ryan appeared to “gesticulate angrily and yell through his facemask” at police.
According to charging documents, the FBI received a tip about Ryan’s identity in February 2023 and confirmed it in an interview with an employee at Ryan’s work.
Ryan himself sat for a voluntary interview with the FBI in October 2023. During that interview, according to investigators he said he’d traveled to D.C. for Jan. 6 on a bus with a church group out of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, to attend the “Stop the Steal” rally. He also identified himself as a man seen wearing a navy-blue coat and carrying a wooden cane.
Ryan was being represented by defense attorney William Shipley, who has represented dozens of other defendants in Jan. 6 cases, including Texas militia member Lucas Denney and “QAnon Shaman” Jacob Chansley in his post-conviction appeal.