Utahn charged with attacking police during Jan. 6 insurrection

Another Utahn — the 13th — has been charged in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Odin Meacham, 29, was arrested Monday, more than 28 months after the violent insurrection. However, he was not positively identified from photos until about two months ago.

According to court documents, Meacham was seen on body-worn camera and publicly available video:

• Trying to pull a bike rack away from police officers, who were using it to try to hold back rioters.

• Rushing toward several officers and striking at least one in the upper body with a large wooden pole.

• Picking up and throwing a metal pole at officers, hitting one in the hand.

• Taunting police officers.

• Emerging from the crowd of insurrectionists, shouting “lean in” multiple times, and signaling with his hand “in an apparent effort to galvanize the crowd to approach and overwhelm the officers.”

• Trying to grab an officer’s baton.

The FBI has been trying to identify Meacham since June 2021. The FBI believed it matched Jan. 6 photos and videos to Meacham’s passport application and Utah driver’s license, and on March 13 a witness who “has known Meacham for many years” identified him as the man in the photos. The witness also told the FBI that Meacham had traveled to Washington D.C. around the time of the insurrection.

Meacham has been charged with multiple felonies, including assaulting, resisting or impeding officers using a dangerous weapon; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building; engaging in physical violence in a restricted building; and physical violence in the Capitol grounds or buildings.

He is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Department of Justice National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section, with assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah.