Three Puyallup men with federal government ties charged in connection to Capitol riot
Three men from Puyallup were charged in federal court Monday with misdemeanors in connection to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to court documents.
FBI agents identified cell phone data and surveillance footage that put Kevin M. Cronin and his sons Kevin M. Cronin II and Dylan R. Cronin in and around the U.S. Capitol building during the attack, court documents show. All three face federal charges related to demonstrating in a Capitol building and engaging in conduct that disrupts government business, while Dylan Cronin also is accused of destroying government property and committing violence on Capitol grounds.
Court appearance
The Cronins were brought into Magistrate Judge Theresa Fricke’s courtroom consecutively Monday. Dylan Cronin was the last to appear.
“He’s the one that actually broke, using a piece of lumber to break glass,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Erika Evans said of Dylan Cronin in court Monday. “He climbed through a window adjacent to the glass that he broke, to breach and go inside the Capitol building.”
Police arrested the men in Puyallup on Monday and a federal judge ordered them released from custody after an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Tacoma. They did not enter any pleadings and further proceedings will be held in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Each man faces multiple years in prison and thousands of dollars in fines if convicted on all charges.
Fricke ordered the men not to travel to Washington, D.C., without permission and store any weapons they own with a third party.
Kevin M. Cronin II was a member of the Washington National Guard and Dylan Cronin is an Army reservist, court documents show. Their father, Kevin M. Cronin, is a U.S. Postal Service employee.
Kevin M. Cronin II was discharged from the Washington National Guard in August 2021, according to a spokesperson. The U.S. Army Reserve and USPS did not immediately respond to requests to confirm the employment statuses of Dylan Cronin and Kevin M. Cronin.
Travel records showed all three men flew to Washington, D.C., from Seattle on Jan. 5, 2021, and returned on Jan. 8, according to court documents.
Surveillance footage showed all three men in multiple locations inside the U.S. Capitol building, while news media and social media images showed them at a political rally that preceded the riot, court documents say. The Cronin brothers both wore “Make America Great Again” hats and their father had on a “Trump 2020” hat.
Cronins at the U.S. Capitol
Three men investigators believe to be the Cronins were first seen on surveillance footage outside the Capitol building’s northwest staircase shortly after 2 p.m., according to court documents. Video then showed someone resembling Dylan Cronin kicking a Senate Wing exterior door and using a piece of lumber to break a glass pane on a nearby window.
Within a minute, video footage showed someone believed to be Dylan Cronin entering the Capitol building through a window pane next to the one he broke, charging documents show. Once inside, the man was captured on surveillance video meeting up with Kevin M. Cronin II near the Senate Wing door, with their father entering through the door shortly thereafter.
Surveillance footage showed all three men leaving the building after smoking cigarettes and only two people resembling the Cronin brothers returning inside, according to court documents. Video tracked the two younger men traveling to multiple areas of the building.
Just before 2:40 p.m., video footage showed a person resembling Kevin M. Cronin II leaving through a broken window on the Senate Wing, court documents say. Police body-worn camera footage captured the man resembling Dylan Cronin inside the Capitol building just before 3 p.m.
All three men were sighted on video footage at a northwest terrace of the U.S. Capitol grounds around 4:30 p.m., according to charging documents.
This story was originally published June 13, 2022 at 2:19 PM.
