WSYM — The man seen in a widely viewed video beating a D.C. police officer with a hockey stick during the insurrection at the United States Capitol is from Michigan, according to the FBI.
Thursday, FOX 17 obtained FBI charging documents laying out the case against 29-year-old Michael Foy of Wixom, Michigan. He faces five counts.
Foy faces one count each of knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; obstruction of law enforcement; forcibly assault, resist, oppose, impede, intimidate or interfere with any officer of the United States; aiding and abetting; obstructing, influencing or impeding any official proceeding of Congress.
Foy first came to the attention of the FBI on Jan. 10, four days after the riot. The tip referenced a sole image of a man in a gray hooded jacket, cap and holding a blue hockey stick. The tip identified him as the man who killed the only officer to lose his life that day, but the FBI has not corroborated that.
Over the next five days, FBI investigators were able to identify a handful of images also showing the same man, in the same cap and jacket, holding the same hockey stick. The images showed Foy both outside and inside the Capitol building.
The FBI again identified the same man when the New York Times released video of the officer’s beating on the steps of the Capitol. In the roughly minute-long clip, a group of rioters can be seen dragging and beating the officer, and the gray hooded jacket and hockey stick appear prominently in the video.
BREAKING: the man seen in this widely-viewed video beating a D.C. officer with a hockey stick during the #CapitolRiots is 29yo Michael Foy of Wixom, Michigan. Today @FOX17 obtained the FBI’s charging documents #Hockeystickman #FBIDetroit #Michigan pic.twitter.com/ue4I0119u9
— Doug Reardon (@ReardonReports) January 21, 2021
The FBI learned Foy’s name after discovering images of him posted to his father Joseph Foy’s Facebook page. He’s seen posing outside the Washington Monument, wearing the same jacket and clutching the same blue hockey stick.
One user commented under the picture, “Was he the guy sitting in Nancy Pelosi’s chair?” Joseph Foy comments back, “He was raised better,” leading investigators to believe the two were father and son.
Investigators also found more images on Joseph Foy’s Facebook page from November 2020. They’re pictures of Michael Foy – identified by name in a caption – attending a Donald Trump rally. Joseph had made one of them his profile picture on Facebook.
Joseph Foy was not available for comment.
Michael Foy has no prior criminal record in Michigan.
