SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif. — A Granite Bay man who recently ran for a seat on the Eureka Union School District school board was arrested last week in connection with the Jan. 6 riot in Washington DC.
Dane Christoffer Thompson is facing numerous charges ranging from assaulting an officer to disorderly conduct in a Capitol building and engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds.
According to a criminal complaint from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, it happened around the time Thompson allegedly attended President Trump’s ‘Stop the Steal Rally’ near the National Mall on Jan. 6, 2021.
The complaint shows several images taken from footage reportedly showing Thompson at the rally around the time he allegedly joined other rioters trying to breach police barricades.
The criminal complaint says Thompson grabbing a bike rack barricade from an officer, grabbing the arm of an officer and then lunging at one.
Later, he was allegedly seen passing a stolen police shield forward to other rioters in a tunnel connecting the Lower West Terrace to the interior of the Capitol building.
Investigators identified him through a website his family uses to document their travels, information from airlines about his travel history, and photos of his watch and wedding band.
Investigators say they tried to speak with him on Nov. 6 but he said he could not speak and asked them to leave his property.
Thompson was arraigned Monday in Sacramento but will be tried in the D.C. circuit.
He recently ran for the Eureka Union School District board of trustees, but didn’t win his race. His candidate profile says he’s an electrical engineer with two children in the school district.
