Shane Jason Woods, 45, was the first person charged with assaulting a member of the news media during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.
Woods, of Auburn, Illinois, took a running start and tackled the Reuters cameraman “like an NFL linebacker hunting a quarterback after an interception,” federal prosecutors wrote in a court filing.
Woods also attacked and injured a Capitol police officer who was 100 pounds (45 kilograms) lighter than him, according to prosecutors. He blindsided the officer, knocking her off her feet and into a metal barricade. The next day, the officer was still in pain and said she felt as if she had been “hit by a truck,” prosecutors said.
Woods, who ran an HVAC repair business, was arrested in June 2021 and pleaded guilty to assault charges in September 2022.
He also has been charged in Illinois with first-degree murder in the death of a woman killed in a wrong-way car collision on Nov. 8, 2022.
While free on bond conditions for the Jan. 6 case, Woods was pulled over for speeding but drove off and fled from law enforcement. Woods was drunk and driving in the wrong direction down a highway in Springfield, Illinois, when his pickup truck slammed into a car driven by 35-year-old Lauren Wegner, authorities said. Wegner was killed, and two other people were injured in the crash.
Woods was injured in the crash and was taken to a hospital, where a police officer overheard him saying that he had intentionally driven the wrong way on the highway and had been trying to crash into a semi-trailer truck, according to federal prosecutors. He remains jailed in Sangamon County, Illinois, while awaiting a trial scheduled to start in January, according to online court records.
If a quarterback throws an interception, the other team has possession, and the linebackers are expected to block for the runner. Meanwhile, the quarterback, along with the rest of his team, are technically supposed to be trying to stop the runner. Thus, the quarterback may be a valid target for a linebacker to “block”.
The quarterback is often distracted right after throwing an interception, so if a linebacker “blocks” him, it often really just amounts to a blindside. A free, intentionally unsporting, very hard, hit on the one person who is central to their offense, and who is normally better protected from large impacts.
I’d agree with you if they said block and not tackle
They didn’t say “tackle”. They said “like an NFL linebacker hunting a quarterback after an interception.” Hope this helps.
You’re right, that was the AP characterizing it as a tackle. Whoops