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A Pennsylvania man accused of hurling a fireplace extinguisher at a bunch of cops throughout final week’s Capitol riot has been arrested, authorities stated.
Robert Sanford, 55, a retired firefighter from the Chester Fire Department, has been charged with 4 federal counts, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia in Washington stated.
The hearth extinguisher struck an officer who was carrying a helmet within the head, then ricocheted and hit two different officers, one among whom was not carrying a helmet, within the head, prosecutors stated.
The expenses in opposition to Sanford should not associated to the demise of U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick. The Associated Press and The New York Times have reported that Sicknick was struck by a fireplace extinguisher.
Sanford bought caught up within the second and made a “split-second decision” that he deeply regrets, his lawyer, Enrique Latoison, stated Thursday. “Everyone was in a mob mentality,” he stated.
Latoison stated Sanford didn’t enter the Capitol. He stated that the thrown hearth extinguisher was empty and that the officers who had been struck reported no accidents.
Sanford went to Washington to attend President Donald Trump’s rally and had no intention of rioting, he stated.
“Trump says, ‘we’re going to the Capitol.’ Next thing you know, thousands of people are walking,” Latoison stated. “When he got down there, things got crazy.”
Sanford was ordered held with out bail. He turned himself in to the FBI on Thursday morning as requested by authorities, his lawyer stated.
Sanford was allegedly captured on video throwing an extinguisher at a bunch of officers after a mob overwhelmed police and broke by barricades. The video allegedly exhibits him decide up the article from a low terrace and hurl it because the officers are backed in opposition to the wall.
An FBI affidavit within the case says {that a} Capitol Police officer “felt a hard strike” to the again of his helmet as he was trying to manage the gang and noticed the extinguisher on the bottom. The officer was evaluated and cleared to return to responsibility.
The riot occurred after Trump inspired folks on the rally to stroll to the Capitol on the day Congress was formally counting the electoral votes affirming President-elect Joe Biden’s win.
The president has been accused of inciting the riot, each with the language at that rally and together with his repeated and baseless claims that the election was fraudulent or stolen. Trump had additionally prompt that Vice President Mike Pence might overturn Biden’s victory, which Pence had no energy to do.
Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives on Wednesday for “incitement of insurrection.” It is the one time within the nation’s historical past {that a} president has been impeached twice.
Authorities have stated that 5 folks died within the riot, together with Sicknick and a lady who was shot by a Capitol police official contained in the constructing. Three others died of what have been described as medical emergencies.
People have been arrested from all around the county following Wednesday’s occasions in Washington, D.C.
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