Capitol Hill siege: Three charged for assaulting federal officers
By a Biometrica staffer
January 26, 2021
On Friday, three men were charged for their attacks on local and federal enforcement officers, and for other crimes they committed during the riots at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
Emanuel Jackson of D.C., Scott Kevin Fairlamb of New Jersey and Jeffrey Sabol of Colorado appeared at different United States district courts on Jan. 22. On the same day the FBI announced the arrest of Andrew Ericson in Oklahoma City for his alleged involvement in the riots, as federal authorities ramped up efforts to identify and prosecute participants in the siege. According to an AP report, five New Jersey residents, including a corrections officer, were also arrested on Friday.
Jackson, 20, was ordered held without bond pending trial after a detention hearing in a District Court for the District of Columbia. He had allegedly repeatedly struck an officer of the U.S. Capitol Police force while trying to break through the barricaded doorway of the Senate Wing entrance on the west side of the building with a large group of rioters. Later that day, Jackson had joined a violent mob outside the building at the West Terrace entrance, wielding a metal baseball bat and repeatedly striking a group of U.S. Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department officers in an attempt to break through.
Sabol,51, was part of a violent group that grabbed a Metropolitan police officer from the post where he guarded against access to the interior of the Capitol building, and dragged him down the exterior stairs. Sabol is seen in a photograph holding an instrument believed to be a police officer’s baton across the officer’s lower neck while his left hand is pressed to the backside of the officer. He was later pulled over by police in New York State based on reports of erratic driving.
Charges levelled against Fairlamb, 43, allege he “shoved and punched an officer on the West Front of the Capitol” when the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department arrived at the Capitol to assist the U.S. Capitol Police in restoring order. Video footage shows Fairlamb picking up a baton from the ground and placing it under his arm and leaving from inside the Capitol building. The affidavit also alleges Fairlamb posted a video on his Facebook account where he is seen carrying a collapsible baton like the one depicted in the video and said, “What Patriots do? We [expletive] disarm them and then we storm [expletive] the Capitol.”
Federal authorities have widened the search for perpetrators of the Jan. 6 riot. And with many participants openly declaring on social media about rioting inside the Capitol, most of the evidence has been easily obtainable, a New York Times report said. A New York Times report says more than 140 people have been charged, with the FBI receiving more than 100,000 tips. All cases are being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.