WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — A former NFL linebacker who was once signed by the DC Defenders was charged with assaulting law enforcement officials during the Jan. 6, 2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol, the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) announced Thursday.
Best known as a linebacker for the Detroit Lions, 31-year-old Leander Antwione Williams of Georgia was charged for his actions in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
The FBI arrested him on Nov. 14, 2024, in Savannah, Ga.
The USAO alleged that Williams was among the initial group of rioters who breached the perimeter around the Capitol grounds, near the Peace Monument.
There, Williams confronted and overpowered stationed Capitol Police officers.
Once past that police line, he moved toward the Capitol’s West Plaza, where officers tried forming defensive lines against the advancing rioters. As the crowd pushed the officers back toward the stairs leading to the West Terrace, more support arrived from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), which dispersed rioters off the plaza.
Shortly before 1:15 p.m., MPD tried maintaining control of an area with metal bike rack barricades.
It is there that the USAO alleges that Williams tried seizing one of the racks from an officer who was working to clear the plaza. He lunged at an officer, swatting their hand and the officer deployed pepper spray.
Despite the escalating violence, Williams stayed close to the front lines, using other rioters as a cover to mask his actions.
At around 1:38 p.m., the USAO said he grabbed a barricade and tried to pull it back from the police line. In response, officers tried pushing him away, but he resisted and allegedly struck an officer on the head with a “forceful arm motion.”
MPD was eventually able to push him back down the steps.
Williams rejoined the rioters and, at about 2:09 p.m., again pushed against the bike rack line, trying to break through officers’ defensive formation.
About 18 minutes later, with the bike racks removed, Williams allegedly grabbed and shoved two officers in an attempt to breach the line.
Rioters later managed to retake the West Plaza, where Williams is said to have joined chants of “U.S.A.!” while raising his fists. After treating himself for exposure to the spray used by officers, he continued toward the Lower West Terrace – an area of intense violence that day.
He eventually left the grounds that evening.
After being arrested 46 months after Jan. 6, Williams was charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers and obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder (felony), as well as misdemeanor offenses of disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, act of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or buildings and other related charges.
