A Michigan man was sentenced to 51 months and 36 months of supervised release and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution for assaulting law enforcement during the breach of the U.S. Capital on Jan. 6, 2021.
Michael Krol, 64, of Linden, Michigan, was charged on Friday (Dec. 15). He pleaded guilty on Aug. 15, 2023, to one count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon, a felony.
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Court documents say Krol, a self-professed executive officer of the Genesee County, Michigan Volunteer Militia and associate of the Wolverine Watchmen, an extremist group comprised of individuals convicted in the plot to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer, joined the storming of the police line on the West Plaza of the Capitol grounds, stole a police baton from an officer by pulling the officer in circles before wrestling it away and celebrated his conduct by holding the baton in the air.
The 64-year-old used that same police baton to strike at least three police officers, badly injuring the right hand of a U.S. Capitol Police Sergeant.
Officials say Kroll traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend the “Stop the Steal” rally. Afterward, he made his way to the U.S. Capitol building, where he eventually found himself facing off with a line of police officers.
Krol pushed forward through the crowd of rioters and threw a water bottle at police prior to his attack at 2:28 p.m.
The 64-year-old man attacked another officer who was assisting another law enforcement officer who had fallen to the ground. Krol approached, raised the stolen baton, and violently struck downward on the officer’s outstretched bare right hand with the police baton, causing significant injuries to his right hand.
Krol was arrested on Feb. 22, 2022, in Michigan.
