Defendant was Armed With Knife and Joined in Chase of Officer
WASHINGTON – An Iowa man was sentenced today in the District of Columbia to 60 months in prison for assaulting U.S. Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman during the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. His and others’ actions disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress convened to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the presidential election.
Douglas Austin Jensen, 43, of Des Moines, Iowa, was found guilty by a jury, in September, of five felonies that included: assaulting, resisting, or impeding a law enforcement officer; obstruction of an official proceeding; interfering with a law enforcement officer during a civil disorder; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a dangerous weapon; and disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a dangerous weapon. He also was found guilty of the misdemeanor offenses of disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.
According to the government’s evidence at trial, on January 6, 2021, Jensen illegally entered the U.S. Capitol grounds at approximately 2 p.m. He wore a distinctive black shirt with a large “Q” emblazoned on the chest, and he carried a knife with a three-inch blade inside his pocket. He scaled a wall on the West Front of the Capitol, watched as a mob broke the windows and doors at the Senate Wing entrance, and was the tenth person inside the Capitol Building.
Once inside, Jensen encountered Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman. Jensen repeatedly disobeyed Officer Goodman’s commands to back up and to leave the building. Jensen ultimately led a mob of rioters in a menacing pursuit of Officer Goodman up the East Grand Staircase, just steps away from the Senate Chamber. There, he waved the mob forward and demanded that officers “back up,” “surrender the building,” and arrest Vice President Mike Pence. Jensen was escorted out of the Capitol after about 40 minutes, but he re-entered shortly thereafter through the East Rotunda Doors. While inside the Rotunda, he shoved and berated Metropolitan Police Department officers who were clearing rioters from the Capitol Building.
Jensen was arrested on Jan. 8, 2021, in Des Moines, Iowa.
In addition to the prison term, Jensen was ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution and complete three years of supervised release.
The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. Valuable assistance was provided by the Department of Justice National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.
The case is being investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office, which identified Jensen as #44 in its seeking information photos and the FBI’s Omaha Field Office and its Des Moines Resident Agency. Valuable assistance was provided by the U.S. Capitol Police, and the Metropolitan Police Department.
In the 23 months since Jan. 6, 2021, close to 900 individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including over 265 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The investigation remains ongoing.
Anyone with tips can call 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or visit tips.fbi.gov.