A New York man arrested on Friday for assaulting a DC Metropolitan police officer during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has admitted to the FBI that he buried the officer’s license plate in his backyard after he returned home.
According to court documents, Thomas Sibick was arrested Friday in Buffalo, New York. Sibick faces five charges, including obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder, assault or obstruction of officers, and taking anything valuable through violence or intimidation.
Sibick was caught on video in which he assaulted MPD officer Mike Fanone, who was harassed and assaulted by rioters, who dragged him to the crowd as they tried to enter the Capitol. HuffPost previously reported on the identity of a man in a MAGA hat who was seen with a taser on Fanone during the attack.
MPD had earlier told HuffPost that there were no arrests in the attack on Fanone, and that Sibick’s arrest is apparently the first.
According to the affidavit, Fanone’s footage from his body camera shows his police radio and badge being snatched from his vest by Sibick. After the riot, Sibick posted images of himself holding an American shield from the Capitol police and trying to enter the building with the mob.
FBI agents first interviewed Sibick on Jan. 27 and admitted he was in DC on the day of the Capitol uprising. He told agents he heard someone say ‘get’ [Fanone’s] gun and kill him, ”but claims he is trying to help the officer. In early February, Sibick once again denied involvement in the assault. But by the end of February, he said he had to “withdraw” his previous statement, admitting to grabbing the officer’s badge and radio. He said he dropped them in a trash can in DC, but later called an agent, claiming he “wanted to do the right thing”.
According to the FBI statement, Sibick said he “buried the license plate in his backyard”, bought a metal detector to find it, dug it up and wanted to return it.
FBI According to the FBI, Thomas Sibick buried a police badge he stole during the riot in Capitol in his backyard.
“Later that evening, SIBICK met the agent and gave a bag with mud and officer MF’s badge,” the statement read.
A federal magistrate’s judge in New York has ordered the release of Sibick, but on Friday the government instituted an emergency appeal asking a DC judge to order him back into government custody. Sibick, the government said, “took part in a violent riot on January 6” and robbed an officer “and should be detained because he was charged with an offense involving a violent crime.
Read the statement below.
Call all the HuffPost superfans!
Sign up for membership to become a founding member and help shape the next chapter of HuffPost