Capitol rioter who fought police and later pulled shotgun on his probation officer pleads guilty

A Pennsylvania man who was jailed in May after reaching for a loaded shotgun during an unannounced visit by probation officers has pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers during the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Barton Wade Shively, 55, of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty in the District of Columbia to two counts of assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement officers, the Department of Justice reported. The plea agreement proscribes a punishment range of 30 to 37 months plus fines under federal sentencing guideless, subject to a judge’s approval.

Shively confessed in an interview with FBI agents that he had crossed broken-down barricades and got into fights with multiple officers, striking one and grabbing another by the jacket, the FBI reported. “Shelby admitted ‘I got caught up in the moment,’ the report said.

But Shively earned a more unusual distinction four months ago when – after nearly a year and a half under house arrest – he was jailed for violating the terms of his probation, according to a report at Buzzfeed News.

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“Probation officers reported that Shively had reached for a loaded shotgun — which he wasn’t allowed to have — during an unannounced home inspection,” Buzzfeed reported. “Besides the 12-gauge shotgun, the probation officers saw ‘in plain view’ hundreds of rounds of ammunition, a sword, knives, and body armor as they walked around Shively’s home, according to an order from US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly.

“Shively’s motion toward the shotgun prompted one of the probation officers to draw his own weapon, the order stated. Shively ‘displayed an alarming lack of candor’ with the court officers monitoring his compliance with his release conditions, the judge wrote.”

You can read the FBI statement of facts here.