Ex-LI'er Assaulted Law Enforcement During Capitol Breach: DOJ

ASHEVILLE, NC — A former Farmingdale resident was arrested Wednesday after he was accused of assaulting law enforcement officers during the U.S. Capitol breach on Jan. 6, 2021, the United States Department of Justice said.

Anthony Mastanduno, 60, who is now a resident of Rutherford County in North Carolina, disrupted the U.S. Congress as it counted electoral votes in the 2020 presidential election, federal officials said.

Mastanduno was seen on CCTV footage unlawfully entering the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, through the Senate Wing Door while wearing a camouflage jacket, backpack, and a red baseball cap with a patch on the bill and "Trump 2020 Keep America Great!" embroidered in white thread, court documents show. He entered the building approximately four minutes after it was first breached, investigators said. Mastanduno was also seen near the Memorial Door at the front of a line of people who overwhelmed officers in the Crypt at 2:23 p.m., officials said.

Mastanduno later went outside the Capitol building, participating in "coordinated attacks" on uniformed Metropolitan Police Department officers defending the Lower West Terrace tunnel, authorities said.

Mastanduno threw an object toward officers, used a telescoping baton to strike at officers in the tunnel, and pushed into the tunnel with a stolen police shield around 4:30 p.m., the DOJ said.

The special agent who wrote the affidavit noted that Mastanduno has been given the nickname of "#ShieldGrampy" because of his age and use of a stolen police shield, documents show.

Mastanduno was charged with civil disorder and assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon, both felonies, the DOJ said. He was also charged with several misdemeanors, including knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; act of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or buildings; and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building, prosecutors said.

Mastanduno is a veteran of the Marine Corps., according to Facebook friends, the DOJ said.

The department included Facebook posts from Mastanduno:

Mastanduno worked at PSEG on Jan. 5, 2021, but was absent from work the next two days, the FBI said after calling PSEG.

The car registered to Mastanduno was observed at 5:22 p.m. January 5, 2021, traveling westbound on the Belt Parkway and Verrazano Bridge toward Washington, D.C., officials said. Mastanduno’s credit union records show purchases made at businesses between Long Island and Washington, D.C., prosecutors said. The vehicle registered to Mastanduno then was observed on Jan. 7, 2021 at 1:24 a.m., inbound on the Verrazano Narrows Bridge toward Mastanduno’s home, the DOJ said.

The FBI interviewed someone who works for PSEG Long Island, and when an agent showed the employee an image of someone standing next to a bust of Václav Havel and wearing a red baseball cap with a patch on the bill and camouflage jacket, the person said, "I know this person to be Anthony Mastanduno," the DOJ said.

Mastanduno was arrested Wednesday in Asheville and will make his first court appearance in the Western District of North Carolina.

More than 1,106 people were arrested in nearly every state for crimes in connection with the breach of the U.S. Capitol in the 31 months since, federal officials said. More than 350 people were charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, the DOJ said.