Trump supporter who died after the QAnon conspiracy

KENNESAW, Georgia (AP) – Before she died in Wednesday’s siege of the United States Capitol, Rosanne Boyland was a recovering drug addict who wanted to become a sobriety counselor. But she also mistakenly believed that President Donald Trump won the November election, and she started to follow a dark conspiracy theory that circulated online, her family said.

“It just went off,” said his sister, Lonna Cave, on Friday outside her home in the Atlanta suburb.

Boyland, 34, was one of three people who died from medical emergencies when a pro-Trump crowd, instigated by the president, invaded the Capitol while Congress certified President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. A fourth person was shot dead by the police and a police officer was also killed.

Capitol police have not released details of how Boyland, a resident of Kennesaw, died.

Cave said the family heard conflicting reports. A friend who was with her said that Boyland was arrested on the ground and trampled during a violent clash between protesters and the police. But his sister said a police detective told the family that Boyland passed out while standing next to the Capitol Rotunda.

Cave said his sister had no intention of committing violence when she traveled to Washington. The family begged her not to go.

“She promised me: ‘I will be left out. I’m just going to show my support, ‘”Cave told the Associated Press.

Boyland was arrested several times for drug offenses, but he was sober for several years and found a new purpose in politics, Nicholas Stamathis, a friend of hers from Kennesaw, told the AP.

“She got clean and sober and stopped blaming other people for her problems and became really conservative,” said Stamathis of her friend, whom she called “Rosie”.

She attended meetings with a group of addicts in Atlanta and picked up her little nieces every day from school, her sister said.

The deadly uprising prompted Boyland’s brother-in-law, Justin Cave, to call for Trump’s removal.

“My personal belief is that I believe the president’s words and rhetoric sparked a riot (Wednesday) that killed four of his biggest fans,” said Cave, a former host of HGTV’s “Ground Breakers” program.

The sisters also clashed with Boyland’s political views and the QAnon myth, which includes violent allegations from a child sex network. Boyland started following the conspiracy theory in the past six months, said Lonna Cave.

Boyland explored his baseless allegations that online furniture retailer Wayfair was part of the fictional circle, his sister said, and his faith in conspiracies went from there.

“She texted me with a few things, and I said, ‘Let me check this out.’ And I would sit there and think, ‘Well, I don’t think that’s right,’ ”said Lonna Cave, 39. “We fought over it, we fought.”

Boyland’s Facebook page featured photos and videos praising Trump and promoting fantasies, including a theory that a shadowy group was using the coronavirus to steal elections.

While they haven’t seen each other in years, Stamathis said that they chatted on Facebook Messenger regularly. A week or two ago, they exchanged “liberals losing their heads” memes online.

“Making fun of liberals together, we are very close to that,” he said.

Boyland’s friend, Justin Winchell, said Boyland was pinned to the ground when bodies of police and protesters pushed each other. People started falling and stepping on each other, Winchell told WGCL-TV in Atlanta.

“I put my arm under it and pulled it out and then another guy fell on top of her, and another guy was just walking (on top of her),” said Winchell. “There were people piled from two to three depths … people just crushed.

The other two who died from medical emergencies are Kevin Greeson, 55, of Athens, Alabama and Benjamin Philips, 50, of Ringtown, Pennsylvania. Ashli ​​Babbitt, 35, of San Diego, was fatally shot by the police while trying to climb the broken window of a barricaded door inside the Capitol.

Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick he was hit in the head by a fire extinguisher, according to police officers who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to publicly discuss the ongoing investigation. He died in a hospital.

Boyland’s latest Twitter post – a retweet from a post by Dan Scavino, the White House’s director of social media – was a photo of thousands of people surrounding the Washington Monument on Wednesday. The photo was taken before Trump, in a speech there, repeated his baseless allegations of electoral fraud and urged protesters to go to the Capitol while lawmakers debated electoral votes.

Boyland’s family has received several threats since his death. They blame Trump for the violence, believing she was caught in the president’s lies about the election.

“It took her life,” said Lonna Cave.

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Dazio reported from Los Angeles and Martin from Marietta, Georgia.