An Auburn, Illinois man who participated in the January 6th Capitol Riot by attacking a police officer and a Reuters photojournalist has been sentenced to federal prison.
45-year old Shane Jason Woods was the first person charged with assaulting a member of the news media during the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol in Washington D.C.
According to charging documents, Woods tackled a Reuters cameraman and attacked and kicked a female Capitol police officer. The documents say Woods blind-side tackled the officer into a metal barricade, and also broke the cameraman’s equipment.
Woods, who ran an HVAC repair business in Auburn, was arrested in June 2021 and pleaded guilty to assault charges in September 2022.
While free on bond in the federal case, Woods was charged with first-degree murder in a wrong-way collision on Interstate 55 that killed 35-year old Lauren Wegner of Skokie on November 8th. Woods was allegedly driving under the influence after he fled from a traffic stop by Divernon Police and then collided with Wegner’s vehicle as he was traveling the wrong way on the interstate near Springfield. Two other people were injured in the four-vehicle crash. Woods is due in Sangamon County Court on the charges on Wednesday, October 11 with a possible trial slated to begin in January.
Today, Judge Amit Mehta sentenced Woods to 4 ½ years in federal prison along with 3 years of mandatory supervised release on two counts. Judge Mehta’s order says any further sentence will be served consecutively with the federal sentence. Woods remains in federal custody at the Sangamon County Jail.