Retired firefighter accused of throwing fire extinguisher at police during riot at Capitol Hill arrested

A Pennsylvania man accused of throwing a fire extinguisher at a group of police officers during the Capitol riot last week has been arrested, authorities said.

Robert Sanford, 55, a retired firefighter with the Chester Fire Department, has been charged with four federal counts, the District of Columbia’s office in Washington said.

The extinguisher hit a policeman who was wearing a helmet on the head, then ricocheted and hit two other officers, one of whom was not wearing a helmet, in the head, prosecutors said.

The charges against Sanford are unrelated to the death of US Capitol policeman Brian Sicknick. The Associated Press and The New York Times reported that Sicknick was hit by a fire extinguisher.

Sanford was caught in the instant and made a “split second decision” that he deeply regrets, his lawyer, Enrique Latoison said Thursday. “Everyone was in a crowd mentality,” he says.

Latoison said Sanford did not enter the Capitol. He said the thrown fire extinguisher was empty and police officers who had been beaten had reported no injuries.

Sanford traveled to Washington to attend President Donald Trump’s rally and had no intention of rioting, he said.

“Trump says, ‘we’re going to Capitol Hill.’ The next thing you know is thousands of people are walking,” Latoison said. “When he got there things got crazy.”

Sanford was ordered to be held without bail. He surrendered to the FBI Thursday morning at the request of authorities, his lawyer said.

Sanford was reportedly caught on camera throwing a fire extinguisher at a group of police officers after a crowd overwhelmed police and passed through barricades. The video allegedly shows him picking up the object from a low terrace and throwing it while the officers are leaning against the wall.

An FBI affidavit in the case indicates that a Capitol Police officer “felt a heavy strike” on the back of his helmet as he attempted to control the crowd and saw the fire extinguisher on the ground. The officer was assessed and cleared to return to duty.

The riot came after Trump encouraged people at the rally to walk to Capitol Hill on the day Congress officially counted electoral votes confirming the victory of President-elect Joe Biden.

The president has been accused of inciting a riot, both with the language of this rally and with his repeated and baseless claims that the election was fraudulent or stolen. Trump had also suggested that Vice President Mike Pence could overturn Biden’s victory, which Pence did not have the authority to do.

Trump was impeached Wednesday by the House of Representatives for “incitement to insurgency.” It is the only time in the country’s history that a president has been deposed twice.

Authorities said five people died in the riot, including Sicknick and a woman who was shot dead by a Capitol Police official inside the building. Three others died from what has been described as medical emergencies.

People have been arrested from across the county following Wednesday’s events in Washington, DC