WASHINGTON D.C. — A Glenshaw man was sentenced to over five years in prison for assaulting police officers and other charges during the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol building.
According to court documents, Robert Morss, 29, was tried with two other men who he illegally entered Capitol grounds with after attending a rally at the Ellipse.
According to officials, Morss, who was arrested on June 11, 2021, joined the crowd on the West Front of the Capitol at around 2 p.m. He was wearing a vest intended to carry body armor plates and had a knife sheath and scissors on him.
Morss moved to the front of the line of people squaring off with officers and tried to steal a police-issued baton from one of them. He also removed a bike rack fence from a sergeant, leaving no barrier between the group of rioters and the officers.
Officials said Morss yelled out to multiple officers, “Take a look around. We are going to take our Capitol back.”
Morss then joined a group that pushed officers back and followed them up to the Lower West Terrace.
At around 2:40 p.m., officers formed a line at the second set of glass doors inside the tunnel of the Lower West Terrace and fought a group of rioters, including the three men, while protecting the doors.
Officials said that around 3:03 p.m., Morss participated in a heave-ho motion where rioters rocked against the police line. He also wrestled a riot shield from a detective and passed it back in the tunnel to other rioters. A group of rioters, including Morss, then made a wall of shields that they used to continue the heave-ho motion.
This lasted until around 3:19 p.m. when the officers cleared the group from the tunnel.
Morss later joined several other people and climbed through a broken window of the Capitol. He went into an office, took a chair and passed it out of the window to other rioters outside.
Morss was convicted on Aug. 23, 2022 and was sentenced today to 66 months in prison for assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers with a dangerous weapon, obstruction of an official proceeding, and robbery.
In the 28 months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,000 people have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including more than 320 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, officials said.
The investigation remains ongoing.
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