Feb 12, 2021 4 min read

The Kentucky man accused of pepper spraying police officers during the Jan. 6 insurrection texted an acquaintance afterward that he “got some of their blood, and (was) proud of it” during the attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to evidence presented at his preliminary hearing Thursday.

Text messages from Peter Schwartz also claimed he stole duffel bags of police-issued mace that he allegedly used against at least two officers and that he “should likely be in federal prison today for the patriot acts we committed.”

Schwartz, a convicted felon from Kentucky who had been living in Uniontown since last fall, denied spraying police officers with mace or entering the Capitol when FBI agents arrested him at his Cleveland Avenue apartment Feb. 4. But FBI Special Agent Matt Solomon testified that Schwartz’s wife, Shelley, who traveled with him to Washington, D.C., told investigators “she saw him mace the police.”

Shelley Schwartz has not been charged in connection with the insurrection by supporters of former president Donald Trump, although text messages from Peter Schwartz indicated they were both inside a doorway to the Capitol before the crushing force of the mob prompted them to leave. She did not attend the 90-minute hearing, which was held through video conferencing.

Videos and photographs introduced during the hearing showed a man who resembled Schwartz wearing a plaid jacket, American flag bandana and work boots. Schwartz was wearing the same plaid jacket during his arrest and the bandana and boots were found during a search of his apartment, Solomon testified. A wooden baton “tire knocker” that Schwartz was seen holding at the Capitol was located in his car, Solomon testified.

The videos showed the man in the plaid jacket carrying large canisters of mace and spraying it at police officers. A photograph recovered from Schwartz’s cellphone allegedly showed him holding a pin that must be pulled to spray the canister, which Solomon said he kept as a souvenir.

Solomon testified one officer who was sprayed thought Schwartz “looked familiar” but he could not directly identify him because he had been sprayed multiple times that day. Another officer also could not identify Schwartz as the person using the mace.

Schwartz’s defense attorney, Jay Finkelstein, called the situation “very unfortunate and very chaotic,” but he argued that no videos showed his client using pepper spray on the police.

“He could not definitively say it was Mr. Schwartz who (sprayed) some sort of substance to the police officers,” Finkelstein said of Solomon’s testimony. “It was chaotic and there were a lot of people there.”

Finkelstein also argued that two people who sent tips to the FBI identified the person in the plaid jacket as someone else. However, an acquaintance from his hometown in Owensboro, Ky., told investigators that the man pepper spraying police officers was Schwartz, according to testimony.

U.S. District Magistrate Lisa Lenihan said there was enough evidence presented during the hearing for Schwartz to stand trial, which will be transferred to the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia. Schwartz faces charges of forcibly assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers or employees; knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted grounds without authority; knowingly and with intent to impede or disrupt orderly conduct of government business; obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder; and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.

Schwartz had been living in the Uniontown while area working as a traveling welder following his early release from a Kentucky prison on felony firearm charges. That state has issued a warrant requesting his return, although he is expected to remain in federal custody for the charges related to the insurrection. Schwartz, who is being held in an area jail, waived his detention hearing and will likely be transferred to a prison near Washington, D.C., before he faces trial there.