KC-area member of Proud Boys pleads guilty to felony in Jan. 6 case

A Blue Springs resident and member of the far-right extremist Proud Boys on Wednesday pleaded guilty to obstructing police officers during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump attempting to overturn his electoral defeat.

Louis Enrique Colon, 45, pleaded guilty to civil disorder.

Colon is a member of the Proud Boys, a group which describes itself as a “pro-Western fraternal organization for men who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world, aka Western Chauvinists.” He was arrested and charged in February 2021 along with four other members of the group’s Kansas City chapter, though he’s the first to plead guilty.

He was originally charged with conspiracy; civil disorder; obstruction of an official proceeding; knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. Colon’s plea agreement requires Colon to cooperate with prosecutors.

Colon admitted to crossing police barricades during the Jan. 6 insurrection before climbing a wall to gain access to a higher level of the Capitol. While inside the Capitol building, Colon used his hands and a chair to obstruct police officers who were trying to lower retractable doors to stop rioters from streaming into the building.

According to the statement of offense outlining the facts that form the basis of Colon’s guilty plea, he went to a hardware store on Jan. 5 to buy items to use on Jan. 6, including a “modified axe handle to be used as both a walking stick and an improvised weapon.”

In the 15 months since Jan. 6, 2021, nearly 800 individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including over 250 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.