A rioter who participated in the violent effort to overthrow the U.S. government on Wednesday has resigned from the West Virginia legislature, CNN reported on Satuday, January 9, 2021. Read story here.
Derrick Evans, 35, a Republican, is charged with unlawful entry and disorderly conduct. A former teacher and coach who now invests in real estate, he was a legislator for a little over a month, previous to which he “was known as a local anti-abortion protester,” according to Wikipedia (read his profile here).
“Evans’ harassment led a woman to … receive a restraining order over ‘alleged stalking and repeated threats of bodily injury’, an order which Evans subsequently violated. Evans was embroiled in controversy during his campaign stemming from his membership in a Facebook group chat in which homophobic and Islamophobic language was used [and] said that he stood by his comments calling Nihad Awad a ‘terrorist,'” Wikipedia said. Awad is a civil engineer serving as executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relatioins (CAIR), a lobbying group and frequent target of political attacks by rightwing Islamaphobes.
Photo: Ex-West Virginia legislator Derrick Evans taking his oath of office (left) and dressed in riot gear for the invasion of the U.S. Capitol (right).
