Former Detroit Lions player charged in Jan. 6 riots

Former Detroit Lions linebacker Leander Antwione Williams was arrested in Georgia on Thursday and is accused of assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol, federal prosecutors said.

Williams, who goes by Antwione Williams in the NFL, played for the Lions during the 2016 season.

He was arrested in Savannah and is facing felony charges of assault, resisting or obstructing certain officers and obstruction of law enforcement, the US Attorney’s Office in Washington, DC, said in a statement.

He is also charged with three misdemeanor counts related to entering and remaining on cordoned off Capitol buildings and grounds, disorderly conduct and physical violence.

Williams, 31, is accused of joining others in the pro-Trump mob as it attacked police to enter the US capital on January 6, 2021, after months of lies about an election that Trump lost.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Williams “confronted and overpowered” Capitol Police officers at a perimeter line, tried to grab a bike rack from an officer trying to clear a space, smashed riot control spray from another officer and “struck an officer in the head with a vigorous arm movement.”

An attorney listed as representing Williams did not immediately respond to a request for comment after hours Thursday evening.

Williams had been known as “AFO-419” — the acronym stands for “Assault on Federal Officer” — in photos the FBI released to try to identify people in the mob.

In December 2022, someone sent a tip to authorities that it might be Williams, citing an Instagram account, an FBI agent wrote in a statement of facts filed in the criminal case.

The FBI interviewed Williams at his home in 2023 and noticed a red key fob similar to one seen in the Jan. 6 video, the FBI agent wrote.

In August, the FBI reviewed credit card swipes related to Williams that showed payment in a parking lot near a Washington subway station, about a 10-minute drive from the Capitol grounds, that were made on Jan. 6, 2021, the statement of facts said.

The mob that attacked police and ransacked the U.S. Capitol, causing about $1.5 million in damage, was in Washington for a rally held by then-president Donald Trump on the same day Congress formally counted the electoral votes in Trump’s 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.

In November, Trump won re-election to the White House for a second, but not consecutive, term.

More than 1,561 people have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 unrest, and of those, more than 590 have been charged with assault or obstructing law enforcement, according to the Justice Department.