Armonk native found guilty of cop assault, obstruction in Jan. 6 Capitol riot case
A 28-year-old Westchester County native who entered the U.S. Capitol twice and hit a police officer during the Jan. 6 riot is awaiting sentencing after being found guilty of two felonies in a Washington, D.C., court this week.
Brian Gundersen, a 2012 graduate of Byram Hills High School in Armonk, signed a statement last week admitting the police assault and his other actions that day, much of which was recorded by surveillance and police body cameras. That admission paved the way for U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan to declare Gundersen guilty on Thursday of two of the eight charges he faced: obstructing an official proceeding and assaulting an officer.
Gundersen, who played football at Byram Hills, unwittingly made himself identifiable in the mob of rioters by wearing his Byram Hills varsity jacket as he stormed the Capitol with other Donald Trump supporters. Someone called authorities after recognizing him by his distinctive jacket in news images. He was arrested less than three weeks after the riot.
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Gundersen is one of 13 men from the Hudson Valley and almost 900 defendants in all who have been charged in connection with the riot, which took place as Congress met to certify President Joe Biden's victory over Trump in the 2020 election.
Of the 13 Hudson Valley suspects, four have pleaded guilty, two were convicted and seven are awaiting trial or guilty pleas. Thomas Webster, a retired New York City police officer from Goshen, was found guilty in May of assaulting a cop and is now serving 10 years − the longest sentence yet for a Capitol rioter − in federal prison in Texarcana, Texas.
Gundersen, who then lived in State College, Pa., drove to D.C. for Trump's rally near the White House on Jan. 6 and joined the crowd headed to the Capitol after hearing it had been breached, according to the account he signed. After shouting at police through a window for four minutes, he followed rioters into the building after they smashed a door window pane to enter.
He waved more rioters inside as ones in front of him fought with police, the statement read. He went into the Parliamentarian's office and remained there as rioters broke furniture, stole items and threw papers on the floor.
Gundersen scrawled a mocking message for the Parliamentarian on a pad in that office: "Sowwy for damage."
He spent 25 minutes in the Capitol until police forced him out. Then he got back in 10 minutes later by climbing through a window. After police herded him out again, he spent more than an hour trying to get back inside. As rioters confronted police who were blocking their path, Gundersen hit an officer on the arm.
Then he beat his chest with his fists in defiance after police pushed him away.
"We all stormed the us capital and tried to take over the government," Gundersen wrote on Facebook two days later, in one of a string of social-media boasts quoted in the court statement.
According to the Department of Justice, Gundersen faces up to 20 years in prison for the obstruction charge and up to eight years for the assault charge. He is set to be sentenced on Jan. 27.
Chris McKenna covers government and politics for the Times Herald-Record and USA Today Network. Reach him at cmckenna@th-record.com
This article originally appeared on Times Herald-Record: Westchester's Brian Gundersen guilty of Capitol riot charges
