A person charged in connection with the Capitol riot is accused of assaulting a DC police officer and taking his license plate back to his home in New York, where he allegedly buried it in his backyard.
Thomas Sibick is accused of grabbing Officer Michael Fanone’s badge and radio when the officer was dragged into a crowd of rioters, where they beat and touched him and left him unconscious in hospital.
According to the FBI affidavit, “SIBICK said he tried to reach the officer to pull him away, but that he could not reach him and at that point feared for his life and that of the officer. ‘
Sibick alleges that when he tried to pull the officer away, he accidentally ripped off the license plate and just grabbed his radio so he could press the “orange emergency button” to help the officer, the court file reads.
Authorities say he originally told them he threw the objects away in a dumpster because he was afraid he would be arrested if he changed the FBI, but later withdrew the statement and told the officer that he buried the badge in his backyard.
Sibick is facing several charges for his actions. A federal judge in the Western District of New York is being released in the house’s delivery, although the Department of Justice has filed an essential appeal of the decision, CBS News report.
Sibick says he left the riot after the incident with Fanone due to the violence.
Hundreds have been arrested since the riot, and federal authorities are still investigating the January 6 incident in which five people were killed.