Record at a Glance
- Category
- Jan 6th
- Age in NPR record
- 49
- Location
- Tomball, Texas
- Charges
- Assaulting, Resisting, or Impeding Certain Officers Using a Dangerous Weapon or Inflicting Bodily Injury; Civil Disorder; Entering and Remaining in a Restricted Building or Grounds; 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
- Case status
- Pleaded not guilty; Dismissed in part or full; Deceased
Case Summary
The FBI alleges that images from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot show William Hendry Mellors firing a canister of bear spray toward police officers on a staircase leading into the U.S. Capitol, according to court documents. “Took a nice beat down from Washington DC police tonight. Some tear gas and a riot baton. Broken ribs and some stitches needed,” Mellors later wrote on Parler as a caption for a close-up photo of what appears to be his own bloody ear, according to an FBI statement of facts. Mellors told FBI agents in April 2022 that he’d joined some “rabid” protesters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, also mentioning that a group of Proud Boys had asked him to “walk some ladies back to their hotel to protect them from Antifa” during the Trump rally in November 2020. He added that the Proud Boys “seemed like nice people.” When FBI agents interviewed Mellors a second time in May, he said he expected to be arrested and confirmed he brought two canisters of bear spray to Washington. He was arrested on July 18, 2022, in Houston.
Case History
Mellors pleaded Not Guilty to all charges. The U.S. seeks abatement of prosecution in this matter on information and belief Mellors died on or about October 10, 2023, in Georgetown, Texas. Case is dismissed.
Sources
- Primary Documentation
NPR Jan. 6 Defendant DatabaseNPR - Primary Documentation
Underlying court recordCourt record linked by NPR
Case summary, charges, procedural updates and image are drawn from the NPR Jan. 6 archive snapshot dated 2026-09-25 unless otherwise indicated.