A New York man was inadvertently arrested after sending a selfie of himself on the Capitol during the January 6 rebellion to his girlfriend’s brother, a Secret Service special agent.
DC’s local CBS affiliate WUSA reports that Thomas Fee’s girlfriend posted on Facebook that he had participated in the deadly riot on Capitol Hill. His girlfriend’s brother, a federal agent for the US State Department, saw the post online and texted Fee to confirm that he had been in violation of the Capitol.
WUSA reports that Fee, who lives in Freeport, NY, confirmed his presence and sent a selfie and a video of himself inside the Capitol roundabout. He reportedly sent a text message that was “at the tip of the spear” when he sent the video. The federal agent then forwarded the information to the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Fee was accused of entering a restricted building and preventing the orderly conduct of government business or official functions. WUSA reports.
Fee retired from the New York Fire Department last year, notes WUSA, becoming the second retired firefighter to be arrested for his involvement in the Capitol violation. Robert Sanford, 55, of Pennsylvania, was also arrested last week on charges of throwing a fire extinguisher at the head of a Capitol police officer during the riot.
Several relatives or people close to the people who participated in the riot handed them over to the authorities. Guy Wesley Reffitt was arrested in Texas after his wife told the FBI about her presence in the Capitol violation.
According to an FBI statement, Reffitt said to his wife and children, “If you report me, you are a traitor and you know what happens to traitors … traitors get shot.”
Helena Duke, 18, publicly identified members of her family who were at the Capitol on January 6, posting a video of her mother allegedly at the event.