Feb. 8 (UPI) — FBI agents arrested a New York member of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group on charges of pepper spraying police during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection attempt on Congress after identifying him through his online shopping history.
Aaron Donald Sauer, 43, of Syracuse, N.Y., was arrested Wednesday when he also made his initial appearance in a Northern District of New York courtroom on both felony and misdemeanor charges connected to the storming of the Capitol building with a mob of supporters of former President Donald Trump who were trying to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States.
Federal prosecutors accuse Sauer of traveling with other members of the Proud Boys including Dominic Pezzola from New York to Washington, D.C., where he participated in the siege on Congress and pepper sprayed police officers defending the facility.
According to a statement of facts on his case, the FBI learned of Sauer’s involvement days afterward on Jan. 10, 2021, when an individual identified as Witness 1 told federal agents that they had traveled from Syracuse to the nation’s capital with a man they knew as “R” as well as Pezzola.