‘I can’t breathe! I have asthma!’: Jan. 6 rioter who grabbed officer’s pepper spray is going to prison

A New York man who grabbed an officer’s pepper spray canister in a tunnel at the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riots will spend more than a year in federal prison for the offense.

Troy Weeks, 38, was sentenced to 21 months in prison, 36 months of supervised release, and was ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution by Barack Obama-appointed U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced in a press release.

Weeks pleaded guilty to charges of civil disorder, assaulting officers, trespassing, and disorderly conduct.

The defendant was on the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol grounds near an area known as the Tunnel, the scene of some of the most violent attacks against officers that day, prosecutors said.

Like many defendants in the Jan. 6 cases, Weeks was caught on Capitol building surveillance and police body cameras that day. His actions were recorded and highlighted in court documents.

Authorities noted in court documents that a camera at the Tunnel entrance that day recorded the rioting. In that video, the documents said that law enforcement identified Weeks as “BOLO #85” wearing a gray jacket, a backpack and a red, white and blue scarf flecked with stars.

At 3:02 p.m. that day, he entered the Tunnel as rioters battled with police and worked his way through the crowd up to the police line.

“Alright! Get ready to push! C’mon!” he called out to the crowd as he and rioters pressed in closer to officers.

He then reached his arm past another rioter, through a broken window of a door, and grabbed a can of “OC” spray from the hands of a police officer, court documents said.

Weeks couldn’t get that can, though, as the officer prevented him from doing that.

Seconds later, Weeks came around the door and came into contact with the police on the other side. He then pressed his body up against officers and their shields.

At one point, Weeks told officers he could not turn around after they ordered him back, court documents said.

Weeks was eventually sprayed with mace when he grabbed onto an officer’s riot shield.

“Please! We’re gonna die! Let us through! I can’t breathe! I have asthma!” he told officers as he rubbed his eyes before being pushed away from the front line and then pushed out of the Tunnel by the rioting mob at 3:05 p.m.

About an hour later, outside the Capitol building, he was caught on police camera telling cops, “why don’t we have f—— police protecting the ballots? Why don’t we have this s— when we have elections?”

Weeks returned later and joined other rioters in a coordinated “heave-ho” push and rocking movement against an established police line defending the Tunnel, authorities said.

He was arrested four days after the insurrection in New York after federal authorities issued a “be on the lookout” alert for him.

A coworker later told FBI agents that Weeks usually worked 10-hour shifts from 2 p.m. to 12 a.m., but he did not work on Jan. 6, 2021, court documents said.

In the 45 months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,532 people have been charged with crimes related to the Capitol breach, authorities said.

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