A Jan. 6 rioter from Pennsylvania who was sentenced this month for violently attacking officers guarding the U.S. Capitol during the 2021 insurrection — hitting them with metal and wooden poles — must now face charges in West Virginia for pulling a knife on a restaurant owner and stabbing him with it, police say.
Joshua Atwood, 30, is accused of assaulting the owner of Crazy Donkey Restaurant in Chester, West Virginia, in April 2023 over money he claimed he was owed for handyman work, according to the Harrisburg Daily Voice.
Atwood faced charges of armed robbery and malicious assault. He was apprehended by US Marshals in Hanover Township on May 23, 2023.
According to police, Atwood attacked Crazy Donkey owner Jose Mocias-Onate following an altercation in the Mexican restaurant’s kitchen, which is only a few blocks from a police station.
According to the Daily Voice, Atwood allegedly stole money from the main cash register and attempted to flee, resulting in a scuffle with Mocias-Onate, who was stabbed in the arm after Atwood pulled out a concealed knife.
Mocias-Onate was rushed to the hospital and then transferred to a trauma center in Pittsburgh, where he fully recovered. The Crazy Donkey was forced to close temporarily, but it has since reopened.
Atwood, who was sentenced to 48 months in prison for his Jan. 6 case on Dec. 20, is now facing additional jail time while awaiting extradition to West Virginia.
He pleaded guilty to a felony charge of assaulting officers with a dangerous weapon in the Jan. 6 case, after prosecutors claimed he assisted insurrectionists during a violent confrontation at “the Tunnel,” the site of the Capitol’s most vicious battle that day.
Atwood’s felonious behavior was said to have played a significant role in the riots that erupted following Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.
“As he fought on the mob’s front line, Atwood relentlessly attacked the police with any object within his reach that could be used as a weapon — from a piece of fabric to a metal baseball bat,” according to court filings.
“As he beat the officers in the police line, Atwood called them ‘pieces of s—’ and taunted that they were ‘betraying [their] country.'”
Atwood was accused of attacking one officer with a bottle and another with a “long silver pole,” which he repeatedly pushed into the tunnel.
He also threw a “small square object” into the tunnel at one point and “used a long wooden pole to strike multiple officers using a stabbing motion with a significant amount of force,” according to the FBI.
Atwood struck two Metropolitan Police Department officers before taking a step back and jamming his pole into another cop, bringing it down atop their helmet and across their face plate. The pole also struck a Virginia State Police trooper’s head and neck.
“F— you guys, you are all pieces of s—,” Atwood allegedly screamed at cops. “Every one of you should be ashamed of yourselves. All of you motherf—ers are pieces of s—. Why would you betray your country like this? “Do you love your country or do you want civil, communist f—-?”
A month after Jan. 6, he was arrested in Hanover for disorderly conduct after getting into an argument with officers investigating a traffic accident, which resulted in a fight with a tow truck driver.
He allegedly claimed during the incident that officers were simply “following orders like the Jews did when they entered concentration camps.” The truck driver Atwood fought was Jewish.
According to court documents, Atwood, who lives in Burgettstown with his fiancée and three children, was first identified in the Jan. 6 case when a tipster informed police that they recognized him from a 2011 mug shot. A prominent scar on the left side of his forehead eventually revealed his identity.
