Body camera video captured a “rage-filled” retired NYPD officer attacking one of the outnumbered police officers trying to hold off a mob of rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol, a federal prosecutor told jurors Tuesday
Assistant U.S. Attorney Hava Mirell also showed jurors a photo of Webster holding a U.S. Marine Corps flag on a metal pole in front of the Washington monument before the riot erupted.
Webster shoved a bike rack at Rathbun before swinging the flag pole at the officer in a downward chopping motion, striking a metal barricade in front of the officer, according to Mirell. After Rathbun grabbed the broken pole and retreated, Webster “hunkered down,” charged at the officer and tackled him to the ground, where Rathbun began to choke from the chin strap on his gas mask, the prosecutor said.
“It was his conduct that sort of broke the dam, at least in that area,” Mehta said, according to a transcript. The former NYPD officer, who at one time guarded City Hall and Gracie Mansion, allegedly attacked a Capitol police officer with an metal pole. The other man, a Queens GOP activist, was said to have climbed through a broken window at the Capitol and held a megaphone. NBC New York's Jonathan Dienst reports.
Monroe also has argued that Webster was exercising his First Amendment free speech rights when he shouted profanities at police that day. The defense lawyer suggested that Webster became upset because he saw others in the crowd who were injured and bleeding.