Capitol riot suspect accused of assaulting cop and burying officer’s badge in his yard

Authorities on Friday arrested a man accused of assaulting DC Metropolitan policeman Mike Fanone, who was allegedly beaten and assaulted by a mob of rioters in the assault on the U.S. Capitol. Impeachment documents say Thomas Sibick ripped Fanone’s badge and radio from his uniform during the assault on the western front steps, then buried the badge in his back yard.

Prosecutors allege Sibick, of Buffalo, New York, assaulted Fanone when he ripped off the badge and radio. The assault allegedly took place as Fanone was beaten and charged by a group of rioters who pulled him out of the police line.

As a result of the violence, Officer Fanone lost consciousness and was subsequently hospitalized for his injuries, which likely included a concussion and injuries from the taser, according to court documents. Sibick is not accused of beating or attacking Fanone.

Sibick is charged with assaulting or obstructing law enforcement, obstructing law enforcement, and taking something of value by force, among other charges. A federal judge in the Western District of New York has granted him his home release following government objection this afternoon. The Justice Department has appealed the ruling to federal court in DC, where the case will be prosecuted.

Fanone said he was positioned at a western entrance to the Capitol with a few dozen other officers, facing a crowd of rioters trying to storm the building, when someone grabbed him out of. the police line and dragged him into the crowd. alone.

“It was brutal, just beaten, hit with a variety of different objects,” Fanone said in a January interview with CBS News. He said he had been tasered “probably about half a dozen times.”

Prosecutors said Sibick initially denied being part of the mob that attacked the officer during an interview with FBI agents.

But when federal investigators confronted him with stills of Fanone’s body camera video, Sibick allegedly admitted he was part of the crowd – but claimed he only seized the badge and radio from the ‘officer to try to get him away from the crowd. Sibick reportedly told officers that after taking possession of the items, he placed the radio and badge in a trash can on Constitution Avenue and did not return them to law enforcement because he feared he would be arrested.

Prosecutors say Sibick later retracted that statement to FBI agents, instead claiming he disposed of the items in a hotel dumpster upon his return to Buffalo. After an agent emailed Sibick telling him that authorities would review hotel security footage to confirm his claim, Sibick allegedly called officers saying he was “distraught” and “wanted do the right thing, “and admitted he had buried the officer. badge in his garden. He would have handed it over to the scrambled FBI on a zipline.

Describing his experience with the mob to CBS News in January, Fanone said people started chanting “Kill him with his own gun” and some in the crowd started grabbing his gun.

In an interview with CBS affiliate WUSA9 in January, Fanone said he was considering killing people – but believed that if he did, “they would take the gun and kill me.”

He added that he believed his best chance for survival was “to try to appeal to someone’s humanity” and said he shouted at the crowd that he had children. He explained that some of the protesters eventually came to his aid, surrounding him to help him leave the crowd.

Fanone told WUSA9 he spent a day and a half in the hospital after the attack, and he said he had a message to the group that helped him escape from the crowd: “Thank you. , but f ** k you for being there. ”

He also described the assault as a “coordinated effort,” and said, “I mean, they were almost counting the beat as they pushed against us,” referring to the military practice of singing in a pattern of call and answer.

Before being dragged into the crowd and beaten, Fanone said he saw Constable Daniel Hodges bleeding and being crushed between a door and the crowd as they shouted “heave-ho”.

Hodges told CBS News in January that a rioter ripped off his gas mask, banged his head on the door, picked up his baton and hit him on the head with it.

“I really thought maybe that was it,” Hodges said. “I might not be able to get through this.”

Authorities arrested Patrick Edward McCaughey III in January, alleging he used a police riot shield to pin Hodges to the door as Hodges screamed in pain. McCaughey has been charged with crimes, including assaulting an officer with a dangerous weapon and civil unrest.

No one has yet been charged with the death of Agent Brian Sicknick, but a U.S. official told CBS News last month the FBI was focusing on a man as a potential suspect.

Nearly 140 officers from the United States Capitol Police and the DC Metropolitan Police were injured in the riot, Capitol Police Union President Gus Papathanasiou said in a January statement. at CBS8.

“I have officers who did not have helmets before the attack and suffered brain damage,” Papathanasiou said in the statement. “An officer has two cracked ribs and two broken spine discs. One officer will lose his eye, and another has been stabbed with a metal fence post.”