On Wednesday, CBS News reported that federal authorities have arrested a 54-year-old man from Broad Channel, New York City, accused of participating in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — and of violently tackling a Capitol Police officer to the ground.
"The Justice Department says Ralph Joseph Celentano III, of Broad Channel, New York, 'blind-sided' a Capitol Police officer from behind in a 'football-type tackle,' pushing the officer over a ledge on the Capitol's west terrace, according to an account the officer gave investigators," reported Robert Legare. "The officer, an Iraq war veteran identified only by his initials 'K.E.' in the criminal complaint, was pushed over the ledge and landed on the terrace below."
Per court documents, the officer said he was thinking as he fell off the ledge, "I didn't survive a war to go out like this."
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According to the report, authorities tracked down Celentano by using data from his EZPass and information provided by his "on and off again girlfriend."
Almost 800 people have been charged in the attack on the Capitol, with the charges ranging from misdemeanor unlawful picketing to assaulting police officers, and, in the case of leaders of the far-right paramilitary group the Oath Keepers, seditious conspiracy.
