In the latest charges to be brought against supporters of Donald Trump who invaded the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, an American soldier has been arrested for striking a police officer.
31-year-old Alexander Cain Poplin, a member of the Army stationed in Hawaii, was arrested in the Aloha State on charges of attacking a police officer during the 2021 Trump rally turned riot. He was scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday September 11, per court documents that were unveiled this week.
According to records, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was initially alerted to Poplin’s involvement in the attack in February 2021. At that time, the federal agency had been sent a tip that the soldier had shared on Facebook some details of his actions on January 6, 2021. The post featured a caption with the confidence that protestors on that day had taken “our house back” as well as “stood for something.”
An FBI agent investigating the case interviewed the man’s military supervisor back in July of this year, during which the military official identified Poplin in a photo that placed him in a restricted area of the Capitol Building on the day of the riot. Poplin began that day alongside many other supporters of Trump, who drummed up a “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington, D.C.
The demonstration was intended to prevent what the former president warned was going to be a stolen election and was held at the same time that Congress was counting and certifying the electoral votes from November 2020. But Poplin wound up part of the smaller group of protestors who illegally pushed their way into the Capitol Building. Over a thousand people have been charged and nearly 500 imprisoned in connection to the riot.
According to video evidence, the soldier hit an officer with the Metropolitan Police Department multiple times with a flagpole he carried, which waved a blue flag. Poplin was detained with a five-count complaint of felony charges including assault, civil disorder, and resisting officers with a dangerous weapon.
The soldier’s charges come one week after a medical doctor from Massachusetts saw the latest sentencing in the January 6 cases. Jacquelyn Starer was punished to nine months in prison and nine months of home confinement after she admitted to punching a police officer during the riot.
