US Department of Justice
- Thomas Webster, a former NYPD officer, has been charged with assaulting police in the Capitol riot.
- New body-camera video obtained by CNN shows Webster berating the officer and wielding a flag pole.
- He can be seen swinging the pole before charging at and tackling the officer to the ground.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
New body-camera footage released Thursday shows a former member of the New York City Police Department attacking a police officer in Washington, DC, during the January 6 Capitol insurrection.
The footage, obtained by CNN, shows Thomas Webster wielding a flag pole while assaulting police, eventually charging at and tackling an officer to the ground. Webster is a retired NYPD police officer and a former Marine.
He was charged in February with multiple counts, including using a flag pole to assault a police officer, Insider's Charles Davis reported. The video captures what was described in the criminal complaint. It shows Webster, who is wearing a red jacket, berating an officer and calling them a "piece of shit" and a "commie."
-Marshall Cohen (@MarshallCohen) June 17, 2021
Webster can then be seen aggressively pushing against the barricade and swinging the metal flag pole as police struggle to keep him and others back. The officer is able to wrestle the flag pole away from him, at which point Webster can be seen charging at the officer and tackling him to the ground.
The complaint said Webster shoved the metal gate into the officer and struck him with the flag pole several times. It also featured images from other angles of Webster attacking the officer and attempting to pull his face mask and protective gear off, which the complaint said caused the officer to choke.
A judge ordered the Justice Department to release the footage after legal challenges by multiple media outlets, including CNN. Prosecutors have been using body-camera footage, surveillance footage, and more in court cases, but some of it has not been released to the public.