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Firearm Was Loaded with Shotgun Shells and Hollow-Point Bullets
October 22, 2022 - WASHINGTON – An Indiana man was sentenced yesterday to 60 months in prison for carrying two loaded guns on Capitol grounds and assaulting law enforcement officers during the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. His and others’ actions disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress convened to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the presidential election.
Mark Andrew Mazza, 57, of Shelbyville, Indiana, was sentenced in the District of Columbia.
According to court documents, Mazza brought a Taurus revolver, loaded with three shotgun shells and two hollow point bullets, into Washington, D.C., to the Ellipse, and then to the Capitol. He later admitted to law enforcement that he was also armed with a second firearm, a loaded .40 semi-automatic pistol. Sometime on U.S. Capitol grounds before 2:45 p.m., Mazza lost possession of the revolver. Mazza continued to illegally make his way to the Lower West Terrace and the area behind the Inaugural Stage to a tunnel area with doors leading into the Capitol Building. He joined in a collective effort of rioters to push through at least 20 officers who were defending the tunnel entrance. At approximately 3:13 p.m., Mazza moved to the front of the tunnel line, next to the first set of doors. He held open one of the doors, and, as he did so, he allowed other rioters to attack officers with flag poles, batons, sticks and stolen law enforcement shields, and try force their way through the line of officers. Thereafter, he took control of a baton from an officer’s hand and swung it overhead and downward to strike at officers in the tunnel entrance, hitting one officer in the arm. After striking at the officers with the baton, he continued his efforts to get past law enforcement officers and yelled, “This is our f---- house! We own this house!”
After moving back from the front line, he then participated in “heave-ho” efforts to apply significant physical force and pressure on the officers to remove them from the doorway. Mazza was pushed out of the tunnel by law enforcement officers, but he remained on the Capitol grounds until flash bang grenades were deployed by law enforcement officers later that afternoon. On Jan. 8, 2021, according to the documents, Mazza filed a false police report in Indiana in which he claimed to have lost his gun at an Ohio casino.
Mazza was arrested on Nov. 17, 2021, at his home in Shelbyville. He pleaded guilty on June 17, 2022, in the District of Columbia to assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers with a dangerous weapon and carrying a pistol without a license. Following his prison term, he will be placed on three years of supervised release. He also must pay $2,150 in restitution.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Justice Department’s National Security Division prosecuted the case, with valuable assistance provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana.
The U.S. Capitol Police and the FBI’s Indianapolis Field Office investigated the case, with valuable assistance from the FBI’s Louisville and Washington Field Offices, the Metropolitan Police Department, and the Shelbyville, Indiana Police Department.
In the 21 months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 880 individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including over 270 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The investigation remains ongoing.
Anyone with tips can call 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or visit tips.fbi.gov.
Source: DOJ Release
