A Pennsylvania man accused of throwing a fire extinguisher at a group of police officers during last week’s Capitol rebellion was arrested, officials said.
Robert Sanford, 55, a retired firefighter from the Chester Fire Department, has been charged with four federal charges, said the District Attorney for the District of Columbia in Washington.
The fire extinguisher hit a policeman who wore a helmet on his head, then bounced off and hit two other policemen, one of whom was without a helmet, prosecutors said.
The charges against Sanford are unrelated to the death of US Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick. The Associated Press and The New York Times reported that Sicknick was hit by a fire extinguisher.
Sanford was caught at the time and made a “split-second decision” that he deeply regrets, said his lawyer, Enrique Latoison, on Thursday. “Everyone had a crowd mentality,” he said.
Latoison said that Sanford did not enter the Capitol. He said the released fire extinguisher was empty and that the officers affected had reported no injuries.
Sanford went to Washington to attend President Donald Trump’s rally and had no intention of protesting, he said.
“Trump says, ‘We’re going to the Capitol.’ The next thing you know is that thousands of people are walking, “said Latoison.” When he came down, things went crazy. “
Sanford was detained without bail. He surrendered to the FBI on Thursday morning, as requested by the authorities, his lawyer said.
Sanford was allegedly captured on video by throwing a fire extinguisher at a group of police officers after a crowd overpowered the police and broke through the barricades. The video supposedly shows him taking the object from a low terrace and throwing it while the police are leaning against the wall.
An FBI statement in the case says that a Capitol Police officer “felt a strong blow” to the back of his helmet when trying to control the crowd and saw the extinguisher on the floor. The officer was assessed and released to return to service.
The riot came after Trump encouraged people at the rally to walk to the Capitol on the day that Congress was officially counting the electoral votes that confirmed President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
The president was accused of inciting the riot, both with the language of the rally and with his repeated and baseless claims that the election was fraudulent or stolen. Trump also suggested that Vice President Mike Pence could undo Biden’s victory, which Pence had no power to do.
Trump was accused by the House of Representatives on Wednesday for “inciting insurrection”. It is the only time in the country’s history that a president has been twice accused.
Authorities said five people died in the riot, including Sicknick and a woman who was shot by a Capitol policeman inside the building. Another three died of what has been described as medical emergencies.
People were arrested from across the county after Wednesday’s events in Washington, DC
