Authorities on Friday arrested a man accused of assaulting DC police officer Mike Fanone, who was allegedly beaten and looted by a mob during the assault on the U.S. Capitol. According to indictment documents, Thomas Sibick ripped Fanone’s badge and radio off his uniform during the assault on the stairs on the west side and then buried the badge in his backyard.
Prosecutors allege Sibick, from Buffalo, New York, assaulted Fanone when he ripped off the license plate and radio. The assault allegedly took place while Fanone was beaten and touched by a group of rioters who pulled him out of the police station.
As a result of the violence, Officer Fanone lost consciousness and was subsequently admitted to hospital for his injuries, which likely include concussion and injuries to the taser, court documents read. Sibick is not accused of hitting or tapping Fanone.
Sibick is charged with assaulting or obstructing law enforcement, obstructing law enforcement and taking anything of value by force, among others. A federal judge in the Western District of New York released him this afternoon in house arrest over the government’s objection this afternoon. The Justice Department has appealed against the ruling in federal court in DC, where the case will be further prosecuted.
Fanone said he was positioned at a west entrance of the Capitol along with several dozen other officers, facing a crowd of rioters trying to storm the building, when someone grabbed him from the police officers and put him in the crowd dragging in. alone.
“It was cruel, just hit, hit with a variety of different objects,” Fanone said in an interview with CBS News in January. He said he was “probably half a dozen times” taser.
Prosecutors say Sibick initially denied being part of the crowd that attacked the officer during an interview with FBI agents.
But when federal investigators confronted him with stills from the video of Fanone’s body camera, Sibick allegedly admitted that he was part of the crowd – but claimed that he only grabbed the officer’s badge and radio in an attempt to get him off the crowd away. Sibick reportedly told agents he put the radio and license plate in a trash can on Constitution Avenue after taking possession of the items, and did not return them to law enforcement because he was afraid of being arrested.
Prosecutors say Sibick later withdrew the statement to FBI agents, claiming he threw the items in a trash can on his return to Buffalo. After an agent sent an email to Sibick saying that the authorities would review security material from the hotel to confirm his claim, Sibick apparently called the agents and said that he was ‘desperate’ and ‘the right thing to do’. wants to do ‘and admits that he buried the officer. badge in his backyard. He allegedly handed it over to the FBI with a dazed post.
FBI
Fanone described his experience with the mob to CBS News in January, saying that people had started singing: ‘Kill him with his own gun’, and that some in the crowd were starting to grab his weapon.
In an interview with CBS subsidiary WUSA9 in January, Fanone said he was considering killing people – but he thought that if he did, “they’re going to take the gun and kill me.”
He added that he believes he has the best chance of survival to ‘try to appeal to someone’s humanity’ and says he shouts to the crowd that he has children. He explained that some of the protesters eventually came to his aid and surrounded him to help him leave the crowd.
Fanone told WUSA9 he spent a day and a half in hospital after the attack.
He also described the assault as a ‘coordinated attempt’, saying ‘I mean, they almost counted cadences while insisting on us’, referring to the military practice of singing in a call and response pattern.
Before being drawn into the crowd and beaten, Fanone said he saw Officer Daniel Hodges bleed and be crushed between a door and the mob as they shouted, “hee-ho.”
Hodges told CBS News in January that a riot ripped off his gas mask, slammed his head against the door and took his baton, hitting him in the head with it.
“I definitely considered it might be it,” Hodges said. “I might not be able to make it there.”
Authorities arrested Patrick Edward McCaughey III in January, alleging he used a riot shield from police to pin Hodges to the door while Hodges screamed in pain. McCaughey has been charged with crimes, including assaulting an officer with a dangerous weapon and civilian disorder.
No one has yet been charged with the death of Officer Brian Sicknick, but a U.S. official told CBS News last month that the FBI is focusing on one man as a possible suspect.
Nearly 140 officers of the U.S. Capitol Police and DC Metropolitan Police were injured during the riot, Capitol Police Labor Union chairman Gus Papathanasiou told CBS8 in a January statement.
“I have officers who did not receive helmets before the attack, who sustained brain injuries,” Papathanasiou said in the statement. “One officer has two cracked ribs and two broken spinal discs. One officer is going to lose his eye, and another one has been stabbed with a metal fence.”