Category: January 6
FBI whistleblower pans bureau for alleged ‘gross misconduct’ and ‘fraud’ in early Jan. 6 pipe-bomb investigation
The Biden FBI is guilty of “gross misconduct and/or fraud” for calling off surveillance of an early person of interest in the Jan. 6 pipe-bomb case, an FBI whistleblower alleges in a letter to Congress. The letter refers to events that occurred nearly five years before Blaze News disclosed that the surveillance subject lived next door to a Capitol Police officer who is now a potential forensic match to the gait of the bomb suspect.
After reading the Nov. 10 protected whistleblower disclosure from an FBI supervisory special agent who is still at the bureau and a Nov. 8 Blaze News investigation of the pipe-bombs case, U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie believes the FBI “has been engaged in a cover-up” or has been “grossly incompetent.”
“Either way,” Massie (R-Ky.) told Blaze News in a statement, “these latest revelations about the pipe-bomb investigation require answers from the new FBI director.”
The Blaze News investigation said former Capitol Police Officer Shauni Rae Kerkhoff, 31, appears to be a forensic match to the gait of the pipe-bomb suspect. A forensic gait analysis arranged by Blaze News rated Kerkhoff’s stride as a 94% match to the individual shown on video planting pipe bombs the night of Jan. 5, 2021.
The gait analysis used a computer algorithm to analyze walking parameters including flexion (knee bend), hip extension, speed, step length, cadence, and variance. The veteran analyst who ran the study said based on visual observations the program can struggle with, he personally pegged the match at closer to 98%.
Kerkhoff has not been charged with any criminal conduct by any law enforcement agency in connection with the pipe-bomb incident.
The FBI has not responded to Blaze News requests for comment.
Attorney Kurt Siuzdak of Madison, Conn., filed a 10-page protected disclosure on behalf of his client, the whistleblower, with Massie and U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), among the most active lawmakers still investigating Jan. 6 and its aftermath. Loudermilk is the chairman of the House Select Subcommittee to Investigate the Remaining Questions Surrounding Jan. 6.
The FBI supervisor said that “after FBI agents came within yards of the person who has been identified” in Blaze News’ reporting, “the FBI surveillance team agents were ordered to cease their investigation, denied permission to conduct at least one logical interview, immediately removed from surveillance, and reassigned to do general leads work,” Siuzdak wrote.
“The ‘neighbor’ identified below [in the whistleblower complaint] lived within feet of [Person of Interest 3] and she appears to be the same individual as investigative reporter Steve Baker identified as a former U.S. Capital [sic] Police officer, who is currently associated with a U.S. intelligence agency,” Siuzdak wrote.
After the FBI identified several persons of interest in the pipe-bombs case, Squad 21 of the Washington Field Office Intelligence Division was assigned to do “FISUR,” or physical surveillance, in the Bailey’s Crossroads section of Falls Church, Va.
Kyle Seraphin, who was then a member of Squad 21, told Blaze News the surveillance lasted two days before the squad was pulled off the case without warning.
The new whistleblower said the female next-door neighbor of the man being surveilled was photographed by FBI agents.
“The ‘neighbor’ had been photographed by the FBI surveillance team, and her photograph and attire are similar to the individual who [allegedly] placed the devices,” Siuzdak said.
The FBI had already determined that the man referred to in FBI documents as Person of Interest 3 should be interviewed by agents. But when Seraphin proposed that he do a “knock and talk” at the man’s door, the idea was rejected, Siuzdak said.
The suspected pipe bomber moves to a bench behind the Democratic National Committee building in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5, 2021. FBI
The face-to-face interview with POI3 “would have obviously led to the doorstep of the ‘neighbor,’” Siuzdak wrote. “However, investigative steps offered by the FBI agents in the field were rejected, and agents were immediately reassigned. The discontinuation of the investigation was described [by the whistleblower] as improper.”
Kerkhoff is named in consumer, banking, and credit records as having resided next door to the man under surveillance. She later moved to Alexandria, Va. When Blaze News editor in chief Christopher Bedford visited the area of Alexandria near her residence the night of Nov. 7, the curtains were drawn, two civilian-looking vehicles were in the driveway, one civilian-looking truck was out front, and a fourth vehicle pulled up after Bedford parked. Two plainclothesmen got out of the final car, and a third joined them from inside the house. The three men stood sentry in front of the home for a time.
The local police responded to Bedford’s visit, and when he tried to drive away, he was quickly pulled over and asked why he was in the area. The local police promptly allowed him to go after he provided his ID and explained the reason why he was near the address.
Internal FBI documents included in the protected whistleblower disclosure corroborated information contained in a January 2025 report from the Committee on House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight.
According to the documents, the FBI had investigated an individual known as POI2, who was seen on surveillance video taking photographs behind the Capitol Hill Club the morning of Jan. 5 — about nine hours before an unknown subject in a grey hoodie placed a pipe bomb next to a row of rolling commercial garbage tubs.
The pipe bomb suspect (above left) walking west on C Street toward Rumsey Court, stopping in front of a congressional rooming house (upper right), possibly looking to place a pipe bomb on Jan. 5, 2021. Capitol Police squad cars (below) with lights engaged were across the street as the suspect walked down the court to plant the bomb. FBI/@Armitas/U.S. Capitol Police CCTV
The man left the area and later returned to walk through Rumsey Court, which runs behind the Capitol Hill Club and the Republican National Committee building. When he was later questioned by FBI agents, the man claimed he was taking photographs of “objects bearing numerals” for a book project.
Agents used surveillance video to track the man through part of the day Jan. 5. He arrived at the Capitol South Metro Station from the East Falls Church Metro Station at 9:58 a.m. Capitol Police “observed POI2 switching hats when we [sic] exits South Capitol Metro,” an FBI report said.
After taking photographs behind the Capitol Hill Club, POI2 walked around the U.S. Capitol complex and met with two unknown individuals, the House report said.
The FBI considered POI2’s behavior suspicious and said he could be considered a possible accomplice to the pipe bomber.
The man again walked through Rumsey Court before proceeding to the Capitol South Metro Station and riding the train back to Falls Church, Va., where he arrived at 6:53 p.m.
FBI records show that Person of Interest 2 was dropped off at the East Falls Church Metro by a Volkswagen Tiguan registered to Person of Interest 3, who was put under surveillance by the FBI a week later. Person of Interest 2 used a prepaid Metro SmarTrip card to pay for the train rides. The SmarTrip card was purchased by Person of Interest 3, the FBI said.
The FBI interviewed Person of Interest 2, who was not identified in the investigative documents Blaze News reviewed, on Jan. 19, 2021. The man was subsequently dismissed as no longer a person of interest in the pipe-bombs case. The FBI also cleared Person of Interest 3 of having any role in the placement of the bombs.
The U.S. House report said the FBI did not explain on what basis it cleared Persons of Interest 2 and 3, indicate how the men knew each other, or explain how Person of Interest 2 obtained the other man’s prepaid SmarTrip card.
In a Nov. 12 story, the Daily Wire reported that “law enforcement suspected a particular Falls Church, Virginia man’s Metro card of being linked to the case, and also that the Capitol Police officer was in fact his neighbor, literally sharing a wall with him.”
The man told the Wire his Metro card “was used by a childhood friend who traveled from the south to attend Trump’s rally, and stayed with him to save money. The Air Force vet let him borrow his card and picked him up from the Metro station in Virginia after the rally, he said. Both men are Trump supporters, he said.”
The man said he had been interviewed on the matter by what he believes to be Metro transit police, as was his visiting friend. Furthermore, the man told the Daily Wire that he does not believe his Metro card was used by his neighbor, the Capitol Police officer, on January 5.
Blaze News was unable to independently confirm the Wire’s report. Blaze News investigative reporter Steve Baker knocked on the front door of the man’s townhouse on Nov. 9, but he declined to comment.
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Former Capitol Police officer a forensic match for Jan. 6 pipe bomber, sources say
A forensic analysis of a female former U.S. Capitol Police officer’s gait is a 94%-98% match to the unique stride of the long-sought Jan. 6 pipe-bomb suspect, according to a Blaze News investigation confirmed by several intelligence sources.
A source close to a congressional investigation of Jan. 6 additionally told Blaze News evidence has emerged recently that pointed toward law enforcement possibly being involved in the planting of the pipe bombs.
‘They were f**king in on it.’
A software algorithm that analyzes walking parameters including flexion (knee bend), hip extension, speed, step length, cadence, and variance rated Shauni Rae Kerkhoff, 31, of Alexandria, Va., as a 94% match to the bomb suspect shown on video from Jan. 5, 2021. The veteran analyst who ran the analysis for Blaze News said that based on visual observations the program can struggle with, he personally pegged the match at closer to 98%.
Kerkhoff, who was a Capitol Police officer for four and a half years, left the department in mid-2021 for a security detail at the Central Intelligence Agency, sources told Blaze News.
In that job, she reportedly serves on dignitary protection teams for officials including CIA Director John Ratcliffe and others, sources told Blaze News.
Kerkhoff’s residence in Alexandria, Va., appeared to be under the watch of law enforcement officers on Friday night. Blaze News editor in chief Christopher Bedford was pulled over by local police after stopping to observe the home. He was then allowed to leave.
Close to bomb suspect
The FBI, which failed to solve the case in nearly five years of investigation but indicated that it was closing in after Blaze News brought its investigation to intelligence sources, was feet from the Falls Church address of the pipe bomb suspect days after Jan. 6, according to the Blaze News investigation.
Former FBI Special Agent Kyle Seraphin realized Friday that he was doing surveillance next door to the woman now suspected of being the Jan. 6 pipe bomber.
“The FBI put us one door away from the pipe bomber within days of January 6, and we were deliberately pulled away for no logical or logically investigative reason,” Seraphin told Blaze News Friday. “And everything about that tells me that they were involved in a cover-up and have been since day one.
Former Capitol Police Officer Shauni Kerkhoff (above) playing soccer in Columbus, Ohio. The pipe bomb suspect approaches the Democratic National Committee building on Jan. 5, 2025.Columbus Eagles FC, U.S. Capitol Police
“They were f**king in on it,” Seraphin said.
Seraphin proposed doing a “knock and talk” at the door of an Air Force civilian employee whose address was tied to a vehicle that picked up the bomb suspect in Falls Church, Va., on Jan. 5, 2021.
Seraphin’s team spent two days watching the man, but Seraphin’s request to go face-to-face with the person of interest was denied. The team was pulled off the case the same night, he said.
Seraphin said he has given the same details publicly since 2021.
“There’s a personal reaction to it, which is the complete vindication that the things I’ve been saying and my recollection of being briefed on this stuff has been accurate for years and I’ve never changed my tune,” he said.
The FBI tied a DC Metrorail SmarTrip card allegedly used by the pipe-bomb suspect to an Air Force civilian employee but determined that while the man purchased the card, he did not use it. The suspect allegedly used the card to travel from D.C. to a stop in Falls Church after planting the pipe bombs. The Air Force civilian employee had purchased the SmarTrip card a year earlier.
Gait analysis
The forensic study, arranged by Blaze News, revealed that Kerkhoff is up to a 98% match to the gait of the pipe-bomb suspect. The findings were confirmed by several current intelligence sources who viewed the study results.
The source who did the comparison said the software rated the match at 94%. He put the figure at closer to a 96%-98% match, including a combination of human intelligence and the software analysis.
Samples of Kerkhoff’s gait were taken from Jan. 6 Capitol Police CCTV security video and compared to unedited video of the hoodie-wearing suspect walking through an alley near C Street to place an alleged pipe bomb behind the Capitol Hill Club about 8:16 p.m. on Jan. 5.
Two other sources familiar with gait analysis who viewed the video comparison and the software analysis told Blaze News they concurred that the video samples matched the gait of the gray-hoodie-wearing suspect.
An expert in gait analysis used a computer algorithm to compare the gait of the pipe-bomb suspect (left) to that of Officer Shauni Rae Kerkhoff and obtained a 94% match.FBI/U.S. Capitol Police
The mystery of the pipe bombs has hung over Jan. 6 for nearly five years. The FBI said an unknown subject placed pipe bombs under a park bench at the DNC and the Capitol Hill Club near the Republican National Committee building between 7:54 and 8:16 p.m. the night before the riot.
Discovery of the devices between 12:40 and 1:05 p.m. respectively on Jan. 6 drew already depleted police resources away from the Capitol just as a huge crowd breached the grounds at 12:53 p.m. A joint session of Congress convened at 1 p.m. to take up challenges to the certification of the Electoral College vote from the 2020 presidential election.
Kerkhoff was a Capitol Police officer from 2018 until mid-2021. She was a member of the department’s Civil Disturbance Unit and a training officer on the use of “less-lethal” crowd-control weapons that were extensively used on the Jan. 6 crowds.
Using lethal force Jan. 6
Blaze News reported Wednesday on Capitol Police surveillance video showing Kerkhoff and other CDU officers repeatedly using lethal force on the Jan. 6 crowd using “less-lethal” weapons. At least 16 members of the early crowd on the Capitol’s West Plaza were shot above the waistline with kinetic-impact projectiles fired from above on the Lower West Terrace.
Blaze News approached numerous intelligence officials two weeks ago with questions about findings from its investigation, which suggested that Kerkhoff matched the description and behavior of the suspected bomber, based on her distinctive walk, slight limp, 5’7″ frame, and other factors.
‘We have conducted all logical investigative steps.’
Footage of the pipe-bomb suspect walking with a backpack on the night of Jan. 5 was compared to Jan. 6 security video of Officer Kerkhoff in various places on Capitol grounds and footage of her playing professional soccer in Columbus, Ohio, in 2017.
The pipe-bomb video that Blaze News used in its analysis was not the footage released by the FBI. A video sleuth who embarked on a more than yearlong investigation told Blaze News the footage made public by the FBI was manipulated to downsample the frame rate. Although it shows the same scene as the FBI video, the clip used by Blaze News came from another source and is demonstrably clearer with much smoother motion.
Former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund told Blaze News he is eager to learn the results of the pipe-bomb investigation. But he said he had no awareness of any Capitol Police officer involvement in the pipe-bomb planting.
The pipe bombs were placed near the Democratic National Committee building (left) and the Capitol Hill Club (right). The bombs were discovered on Jan. 6, 2021.FBI photos
“I had no knowledge that it was being carried out, nor were they carrying it out with any authorization from the chief’s office,” Sund said. “I’m unaware of any legitimate reason that any Capitol Police or other law enforcement officer would be involved in the planting of those pipe bombs.”
The possible solution to the pipe-bomb mystery could have far-reaching reverberations.
Several officials familiar with the government’s investigative efforts said a new work is urgently needed to determine whether there were co-conspirators who aided and abetted the crimes, and to learn if federal agencies or employees knew who was involved in the bomb hoax and participated in a nearly five-year cover-up.
The FBI has faced questions over its failure to make meaningful investigative progress despite offering a $490,000 reward with the ATF, along with a $10,000 reward from the Metropolitan Police Department. Former FBI Director Christopher Wray claimed the bureau conducted an exhaustive investigation.
In congressional testimony, Wray said Jan. 6 was an indictment of right-wing domestic violent extremists. He said white-supremacy-fueled domestic violent extremism is one of the major threats to the nation.
The prospect of a Capitol Police officer being the perpetrator, if confirmed, could recast the entire story of Jan. 6. It could start to unravel the carefully crafted, zealously defended Democrat narrative that massive crowds of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol as part of an insurrection to keep Trump in office and deny Joseph R. Biden Jr. the presidency.
At the same time the FBI was not solving the pipe-bomb mystery, it was carrying out the largest investigation in its history to hunt down the thousands of Americans who went to the Capitol after Trump’s Jan. 6 speech at the Ellipse. The FBI under Wray worked in concert with the Biden Department of Justice to put hundreds of Trump supporters in prison.
Secret Service reaction to bomb
The U.S. Secret Service response to discovery of the pipe bomb under a park bench at the Democratic National Committee building drew fire from congressional investigators and the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General.
Speculation that the Secret Service knew the DNC pipe bomb was a dud began when U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) released Capitol Police security footage showing agents acting nonchalantly after a Capitol Police counter-surveillance officer informed them that he found a pipe bomb in the bushes behind the DNC building.
Agents stayed in their SUV eating lunch for two minutes before getting out to investigate. They stood feet from the suspected bomb and allowed pedestrians to walk past and vehicles to continue driving within feet of the device. Commuter trains that pass directly next to the DNC building continued to run.
‘The FBI put us one door away from the pipe bomber within days of January 6.’
Two weeks ago, Blaze News reported on the yearlong investigation of a video sleuth who found evidence he said showed the FBI was misleading the American public about the pipe bombs.
A user known as Armitas on social media said the videos released by the FBI had been manipulated to reduce the frame rate. He also provided evidence that the pipe bomber first tried to plant the devices outside the Congressional Black Caucus Institute and a congressional rooming house on C Street the evening of Jan. 5.
Shortly after Blaze News’ report on his findings, the FBI released higher-quality footage of the pipe-bomb suspect.
Armitas said he believes the device planted next to a bench in some bushes at the DNC building at 7:54 p.m. Jan. 5 was retrieved at 4:40 a.m. on Jan. 6 and replaced shortly before or nearly simultaneously to discovery of the bomb at 1:05 p.m. The device appears to have been broken by the bomb suspect outside the Congressional Black Caucus Institute on Jan. 5.
Much public discussion in the case dealt with the rare Nike Air Max Speed Turf sneakers the suspect wore — and whether the person was familiar with the areas around the DNC building and Capitol Hill Club.
A commuter train runs past the Democratic National Committee building on Jan. 6, 2021, while a pipe bomb rests under a park bench behind the DNC.U.S. Capitol Police
Armitas said he believes the suspect knew to take a mini-shortcut at the corner of 1st and C streets and escaped through a well-hidden church garden gate after planting the second device behind the Capitol Hill Club.
Gait analysis software can get accurate results even if the subject is walking at a faster-than-normal speed. It can also recognize gait on video shot from a long distance. It does not require the kind of video resolution needed for facial recognition, the analyst said. The bombing suspect’s head was covered by a hoodie and a COVID-19 face mask on Jan. 5.
The jerky motion seen on video released by the FBI would normally make gait analysis more difficult, the analyst said.
Long-stalled investigation
The FBI’s lack of progress in solving the pipe-bombs case drew increasing criticism from Republican members of Congress. In a July 2023 hearing, Massie grilled Wray about video Massie unearthed showing the man who apparently discovered the bomb at the DNC building.
Blaze News later learned that person was a plainclothes Capitol Police counter-surveillance officer.
“Have you interviewed that person?” Massie asked.
“We have conducted all logical investigative steps and interviewed all logical individuals at this point,” Wray replied.
Wray repeatedly stated that he would not discuss details of an active investigation, which prompted a rebuke from Massie.
“We can handle classified information and we fund your department, and so you need to provide that,” Massie said.
“Nine hundred days ago is when this happened, and you said you had total confidence we’d apprehend a subject,” Massie said. “We’ve found video that looks like somebody, a passerby, miraculously found this pipe bomb at the DNC and then notified the police. Miraculously, I say, because it was specifically the same, the precise time, to cause the maximum distraction from the events going on at the Capitol.”
Wray replied, “Well, again, I don’t want to speculate about specific individuals. I will tell you that we have done thousands of interviews, reviewed something like 40,000 video files, of which this is one. Assessed 500-something tips.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray was heavily criticized by members of Congress for not being more forthcoming with Jan. 6 pipe-bomb information. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Inc. via Getty Images
In May 2024, Massie grilled Steven Dettelbach, then-director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, for not providing information about the pipe bombs or what ATF agents did on Jan. 6.
“Are you willing to confirm that the pipe bombs planted at the Capitol Hill Club and the DNC on January 6 couldn’t have gone off with the 60-minute kitchen timer if they were placed the day before?” Massie asked.
“Respectfully, Congressman, I do believe that this does go into the area of the investigation, which is ATF is supporting, the FBI is leading that investigation, and I cannot comment,” Dettelbach said.
Dettelbach would not answer which ATF official was the incident commander for the pipe bombs or whether the devices were planted as part of some training exercise.
In an interview with the House Committee on the Judiciary on June 7, 2023, the head of the FBI Washington Field Office said it would be “Investigation 101” to interview whoever found the pipe bomb at the DNC.
‘That’s just Investigation 101.’
“In any investigation, whoever discovers the device is somebody you need to talk to, right, because they could be the one that planted the device in the first place,” said Steven D’Antuono, assistant FBI director. “You know, so that’s just Investigation 101. So, but I am not aware of that video. I’m not aware of that person.”
Thirteen months before taking office as FBI director, Kash Patel seemed to raise the possibility that the pipe bombs were fakes.
“If the allegations [about the bomber] aren’t true,” Patel said on “The Benny Show,” “or there was some government ruse, or some FBI rogue source or whatever, I don’t know because I don’t have the case files, then there’s another corruption scandal on and around an election-time narrative.”
Ohio soccer star
Kerkhoff was born in November 1993 in Hamilton, Ohio, the youngest of three daughters of Brandt James Kerkhoff and the former Patricia Marie Hennin. Patricia Kerkhoff died in August 2024 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.
Among her skills, Shauni Kerkhoff said she can solve a Rubik’s Cube in less than a minute. She completed the 2018 Boston Marathon in 3 hours, 34 minutes, 9 seconds.
Kerkhoff attended Olentangy Orange High School in Lewis Center, Ohio, about 20 miles north of the capital city of Columbus. She was a soccer standout and top academic achiever who earned National Honor Society membership. She was the starting varsity goalie all four years.
She earned second-team All-State honors in 2011 and first-team All-Conference her junior and senior years. She allowed only 12 goals in her senior season. Kerkhoff was also goalie for the Blast FC Girls Academy in Delaware, Ohio, for six years.
She went on to play goalie for the Division 1 Temple Owls in Philadelphia. She started nine games as a freshman and recorded the highest save percentage in the Atlantic 10 Conference. She started in the next 45 games across three seasons. She also won academic honors, including the Philadelphia Inquirer Academic All-Area Women’s Soccer Team.
Two U.S. Capitol Police counter-surveillance officers walk toward the Democratic National Committee building on Jan. 6, 2021. One of the officers would discover a pipe bomb under a park bench behind the DNC.U.S. Capitol Police
In the sixth game of her senior season in 2015, she collided hard with University of Pennsylvania midfielder Allie Trzaska and went down face-first in the grass.
“To hear someone scream like that, I knew instantly it had to be something serious,” teammate Shannon Senour told the Temple News.
Kerkhoff underwent five hours of surgery at the University of Pennsylvania for a broken tibia, one of the two bones running from the knee to the ankle. Her mother, Patti, later said that when she saw her daughter’s face turn “beet red” on the field, it could not be good. Once she saw Shauni on the sidelines, “I knew it was probably over.”
The American Athletic Conference Preseason Goalkeeper of the Year suddenly faced the end of her college soccer days. The injury and surgical repair left Kerkhoff with a slight limp in her right leg. That would become a fateful thing a decade later, when investigators studied her movements on Jan. 5 and 6, 2021.
The season-ending injury ended up being a blessing in disguise, Kerkhoff said. She had long been interested in Temple’s ProRanger program, a partnership with the National Park Service to produce park ranger law enforcement officers. Weeks after her broken leg, she was offered an accelerated track in the program.
Kerkhoff played a season in the Women’s Premier Soccer League with the Columbus Eagles Football Club.
“This is going to sound so demented when I say this, but I’m grateful that I broke my leg,” Kerkhoff told the Temple News. “Because had I not, I wouldn’t have pursued my dream job.”
Kerkhoff was hired by the Capitol Police in 2018. She testified in a Jan. 6 criminal trial that she applied for her current job before Jan. 6 and left the United States Capitol Police in good standing.
The Capitol Police did not respond to Blaze News’ request for comment on the pipe-bombs case. Blaze News also reached out to the FBI and DOJ, but did not get a reply by time of publication.
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Capitol Police repeatedly used lethal force on protesters early on Jan. 6, video shows
In the span of less than 10 minutes after a huge crowd of protesters filled the U.S. Capitol West Plaza beneath the inauguration stage on Jan. 6, Capitol Police repeatedly used lethal force on the crowd, targeting people in the head, neck, face, and upper body — actions one use-of-force expert called “criminally negligent.”
During that brief span, at least 16 people were shot with kinetic-impact projectiles, including nine who took shots to the top of the head, face, and base of the neck, according to Capitol Police surveillance video obtained by Blaze News.
‘We need munitions! Unload! Unload it all! Take ’em out!’
The rounds are designed to be shot at or below the waist or skipped off pavement to strike the legs and cause trauma and “pain compliance.” None of the rounds observable on the surveillance footage struck below the belt, putting all of the observable rounds in dangerous and potentially lethal territory.
The targeting of the crowd and one graphic, bloody injury to a protester’s face enraged the crowd and appeared to lead to a large escalation of violence toward police, including the throwing of water bottles and flagpoles and the use of pepper spray and bear repellent, the video showed.
Deputy Police Chief Eric Waldow claimed in a U.S. Capitol Police radio dispatch about 1:11 p.m. that his officers were using “indirect firing,” but the department’s surveillance video contradicts that claim.
Waldow also said he gave “repeated warnings” to the crowd to disperse or face chemical munitions, but video shows he did not have a bullhorn, and no warnings could be heard on ground-level video or the USCP surveillance video.
He ordered Capitol Police grenadiers to open fire on the crowd at 1:06 p.m.
“I got a crowd fighting with officers, pushing, throwing projectiles,” he broadcast. “I have given warnings about chemical munitions. I need the less-than-lethal team positioned above me to identify the agitators and start deploying. Launch, launch, launch!“
Stan Kephart, an expert witness on police use of force who reviewed the Jan. 6 surveillance video, said firing crowd-control weapons from an elevated platform into a dense crowd and striking targets above the shoulders is both “criminally negligent” and “potentially a lethal act.”
“There is a wealth of clear and convincing evidence here that police were not trained or equipped to move, disperse, and arrest stragglers,” Kephart told Blaze News. “Instead they adopted a punishment tactic, inflaming the crowd and resulting in injury that they are responsible for.”
‘If you really want to start a riot, shoot them in the head.’
The grenadiers who fired on the crowd from the “crow’s nest” outcropping during the first hour included training officer Shauni Kerkhoff, Sgt. Adam Descamp, and Sgt. Gary Sprifke, Blaze News has learned. Officer Bret Sorrell stood in the crow’s nest holding a riot shield, video showed.
Blaze News asked for comment from Capitol Police Public Information Officer Timothy Barber and Capitol Police Chief Michael Sullivan, but did not receive a reply.
The number of protesters struck with deadly force by crowd-control weapons in the early minutes of Jan. 6 is much higher than previously known, the surveillance video showed.
The fusillade of so-called “less-lethal” crowd-control weapons came in response to thousands of protesters who streamed onto Capitol property after a lightly defended police line near the Peace Memorial was breached at 12:53 p.m. Most of the early crowd ended up on the West Plaza beneath the “crow’s nest” outcropping where presidents-elect take the oath of office.
The massive, amped-up crowd caught Capitol Police off guard. There was insufficient security to defend the Capitol — in part because many officers were diverted to respond to two pipe bombs discovered during a 25-minute span at the nearby Democratic National Committee building and the Capitol Hill Club next to the Republican National Committee building.
RELATED: BBC allegedly deceptively edited Trump’s Jan. 6 speech into riot lie
Protester Joshua Black of Leeds, Ala., is led away by a medic after being shot in the face with an FN 303 projectile launcher round at the U.S. Capitol about 1:06 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021.Metropolitan Police Department
Surveillance video captured from the Lower West Terrace captured the flight of .68-caliber yellow marking rounds and red pepper rounds from powerful FN 303 projectile launchers. Produced by FN America, the FN 303 is powered by 3,000-psi compressed air. Rounds travel at 300 feet per second. A Tippmann 98 pepper-ball rifle was also used on the crowd. Most of the rounds were fired from less than 50 feet away, video showed.
Targeting the head with kinetic-impact projectiles is prohibited by manufacturers and industry safety standards due to the risk of fatal injuries. It is considered lethal force. The website of FN Herstal, parent company of FN America, stresses the point, saying the company “forbids users from aiming at the head.”
“The primary effect of the projectile is trauma, which directly neutralizes the aggressor,” the FN America website says. “Secondary effects from the projectiles can be delivered via a chemical payload depending on mission requirements.”
Operators of less-lethal crowd-control weapons are trained not to aim at or strike the head, face, eyes, ears, throat, neck, spine, kidneys, or groin.
A retired U.S. Army special forces operative who has used the FN 303 launcher and other less-lethal weapons in overseas missions said firing at heads from an elevated perch “will cause such rage afterward.”
“If you really want to start a riot, shoot them in the head,” he told Blaze News.
The bombardment of the early crowd is the latest controversy on weapons and tactics used by Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department on Jan. 6.
Minutes after the less-lethal projectile launchers were unleashed, MPD flowed onto the West Plaza, spraying protesters with high-velocity oleoresin capsicum, commonly known as pepper spray.
After pushing protesters back and forming a police line with bicycle-rack barricades, MPD officers began lobbing dozens of suspected incendiary grenades into the crowd and firing 40mm shells containing plastic pellets, beanbags, and tear gas. Some 40 munitions were fired or lobbed into the packed crowd on the north side of the plaza over the course of an hour, video showed.
At 1:18 p.m., a Capitol Police supervisor broadcast instructions to keep firing at the crowds. “We need munitions!” he shouted to dispatch. “Unload. Unload it all! Take ’em out!”
Pain compliance
Kephart said the descriptor “less-lethal” weapon depends on the launchers being used in a proper and responsible manner as specified by the manufacturer. Otherwise they can easily be lethal weapons.
“All launchers and chemical munitions are ‘pain compliance’ devices first and predicated on compliance, with the pain of the launcher’s impact or the gas, or singularly the beanbag or dowel impact pain. That is why they are to be fired at the belt line or skipped off the ground.
“Additionally, the accuracy factor in deploying these launchers is poor,” Kephart said. “Unlike a rifled bullet, the projectile wobbles in flight due to the absence of rifling stabilizing it in flight.”
A U.S. Department of War less-lethal weapons expert and training instructor told Blaze News that firing into a tightly spaced crowd has great risks that he would not have taken that day. He examined the surveillance video at the request of Blaze News.
‘The escalation of force totally amplified these small groups of people.’
“I know, myself, wouldn’t have felt comfortable sending those rounds into a crowd knowing they would impact face/head target areas and definitely not guaranteed for the intended target,” said the expert, who asked not to be identified by name or title. “Nor would I have advised those around me to do the same. As an instructor, you lead by example, especially being on the line and controlling those around you, and maintaining integrity/continuity/accountability for every round.”
One of the Capitol Police officers whom video showed firing on the crowd with a Tippmann 98 pepper-ball rifle was Shauni Kerkhoff, a certified trainer on the proper use of crowd-control weapons. Pepper balls struck protesters in the early crowd in the head and face. Two riot-gear-clad Capitol Police officers were also struck with pepper rounds, including one who took a shot to the rear of the helmet.
A now-former Capitol Police Civil Disturbance Unit officer who was on the police line beneath the grenadiers said verbal warnings would have been worthless with the extreme crowd noise and stiff winds on the West Plaza. Blaze News asked the former officer to review the surveillance video.
“You really think people were listening with all the noise?” asked the officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “He [Waldow] probably saw everything that was going on and panicked, or at least that’s what I feel when I hear him say ‘launch!’ multiple times.”
The former Civil Disturbance Unit officer said repeated attempts to push through the early police line were made by small groups. “I think they could have been contained easily, but the escalation of force totally amplified these small groups of people,” he said.
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A bystander puts a compress on a bleeding wound punched in Joshua Black’s face by a crowd-control projectile on Jan. 6, while a protester registers his disapproval.Special to Blaze News
The Department of War expert said emotions can be inflamed when crowd-control weapons are used improperly.
“Some of the intended targets and where they hit enticed the crowd to react emotionally and feel they were being targeted or felt the need to protect themselves,” he said. “First aid for the crowd within the crowd was provided, but that’s also enough for an already emotional crowd at that point to [go] one of two ways: become louder and more emotional or take some type of action to start defending themselves.
“In my line of work, [that’s] something you want to avoid altogether,” he said. “It does not take much for a crowd to become unruly or violent.”
The FN 303 launcher was implicated in the 2004 killing of a Boston woman shot in the eye socket by police during a Boston Red Sox American League pennant celebration.
The fusillade of projectiles was fired by grenadiers from the Capitol Police Civil Disturbance Unit, the first of whom arrived in the “crow’s nest” outcropping at 1:01 p.m., security video showed.
Amped-up crowds
From the time the crowd filled in the plaza and police began to establish a hastily formed line, protesters were seen in animated, heated discussions with police. One man carried a sign that read “Expose Election Fraud” on the top and “Playing for Blood” on the bottom. A few rows behind him, a man held up a black baseball bat while another raised an empty axe handle.
A large man in a tan coat and black cap was pushed back by an officer with a riot shield, causing him to fall. As he began to get up, an officer under the scaffolding to the south tossed a tear-gas canister at the feet of protesters and the cloud of gas swirled out into the crowd.
Police used their shields to start pushing the crowd back. Scuffles broke out along the farthest southern police line, with protesters surging and then being pushed back by police. Two of the men in the scrum were a short time later targeted for less-lethal weapons fire.
‘They shot him in the f**king face!’
At approximately 1:06:29, a grenadier fired a .60-caliber fin-stabilized projectile from a compressed-air FN 303 launcher that struck a black-cap-clad protester in the head. The impact blew the man’s hat off, video showed. The round bounced off his head and struck a nearby riot officer.
Just prior, video showed the man was in the second row of a group surging toward the hastily assembled police line. As police pushed the group back, the projectile screamed past the Trump 2020 flag the man carried, striking him in the left side of the head.
Seven seconds later, a man in a tan jacket was struck by a projectile on the brim of his Make America Great Again cap. The round deflected off the cap and struck his upper right chest. He flinched, grabbed his head, and crouched down, video showed.
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A crowd-control projectile fired by U.S. Capitol Police strikes a protester in the head on the U.S. Capitol West Plaza at 1:06 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021.U.S. Capitol Police
Some 30 seconds later, a man wearing a light blue sweatshirt near the police line was struck in the back at the base of his neck. The projectile ricocheted into the crowd. When the man turned around, another round struck his upper chest and dropped to the ground.
A man in a blue sweatshirt who was pushing an officer was shot in the back at about 1:07 p.m., video showed. The projectile ricocheted west into the crowd. The man next to him, who was also scuffling with officers, was targeted for projectile fire, but the round struck his backpack and fell to the ground.
Joshua Black of Leeds, Ala., was the next person to take a potentially lethal shot from above. At 1:07 p.m., video showed the yellow FN 303 projectile striking him in the left cheek. Unlike some of the other projectiles, this one did not bounce off or ricochet. It punched through Black’s cheek and embedded in his mouth.
Black bled profusely, the blood forming a pool on the ground that was still visible hours later. Bystanders immediately tended to his wound. One of them turned to the crowd and shouted, “They shot him in the f**king face!”
“This is a peaceful protest,” a woman shouted, according to ground-level video obtained by Blaze News. “Peaceful!” Another bystander shouted, “We are witnessing tyranny. We are witnessing tyranny right now.”
While Black was getting attention for his wound, a pepper ball fired from above struck a Capitol Police CDU officer in the back of the helmet, sending a cloud of pepper powder into the air. A second shot narrowly missed another officer’s head and exploded on the officer’s riot shield, video showed.
‘Typically, I aim for the ground.’
The bloody scene surrounding Black caused numerous members of the crowd to begin shouting and pointing at the line of riot-gear-clad Civil Disturbance Unit officers on the plaza. Several pointed up to the inauguration balcony in an accusatory fashion, while others issued middle-finger salutes, video showed.
Waldow ordered the less-lethal unit to target a man wearing a baseball batting helmet and carrying an axe handle with an American flag attached to one end.
“Have the less-than-lethal target the subject with the baseball hat and the axe handle and the subject with the gas mask and the American shirt, the American flag shirt. He’s assaulting an officer now,” Waldow said on police radio.
Shortly, an FN 303 round zoomed at the man’s face, appearing to clip his chin before striking his gloved hand. Minutes later, video showed blood running down the man’s left cheek. The man was shown on surveillance video at the police line minutes earlier, but it’s not clear if he shoved or struck an officer.
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U.S. Capitol Police Officer Shauni Kerkhoff shows a rubber bullet to soldiers of the Maryland Army National Guard’s 115th Military Police Battalion, Salisbury, Md., during a joint training event in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 27, 2021.U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. Arcadia Hammack
A short distance away, a man in a blue winter coat was struck in the right side of the neck or base of the skull by a projectile. The round bounced off his head and struck a nearby man in the leg.
The man in the blue jacket knelt down to lend aid to the man who had been shot in the back moments earlier. After he stood up, he realized he was tracking through Black’s blood on the ground. He pointed down at the huge bloodstain and looked at the police line. He then went to the line and began shoving officers.
At this point, a sizeable group was now battling with police. Several men in the crowd aimed liquid and foam pepper spray at the officers. Projectiles, including flagpoles, water bottles, and traffic cones, were heaved at the police line, video showed.
Police surged into the crowd in what appeared to be an attempt to check on the injured Black. While officers tried to help Black off the ground, a rioter in a bicycle helmet and a dark face covering aimed a stream of pepper spray at several officers and might have hit the supine Black as well, video showed.
Training officer testified
Kerkhoff, who joined the U.S. Capitol Police after college in 2018, was the first witness against Guy Wesley Reffitt in the first Jan. 6 federal criminal trial in March 2022. She told a jury that she fired pepper balls at Reffitt as he scaled the Northwest Steps. When that didn’t stop Reffitt, she said, another officer fired at Reffitt with the FN 303 launcher.
She testified that she was a trainer for the Tippmann 98 rifle and the FN 303 launcher. Three weeks after Jan. 6, Kerkhoff was a less-lethal weapons instructor at a joint training event with the Maryland Army National Guard’s 115th Military Police Battalion.
In her trial testimony, Kerkhoff said the pepper-ball rifle is meant to cause some pain to the target to coerce compliance.
“So it has a small amount of pain compliance. So it should hurt a little bit. So that should deter actions,” Kerkhoff said in her March 2, 2022, testimony. “As well as when the ball hits something, it will — it is filled with PAVA powder, so it will launch that PAVA powder into the air and will affect the nasal passages as well as the eyes, causing stinging, burning.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Nestler asked her, “What do you aim for when you first start launching?”
“Typically, I aim for the ground,” Kerkhoff replied.
Noting her previous testimony about experience with the Tippman 98 rifle, Nestler asked Kerkhoff about her knowledge of the more powerful FN 303 launcher. “Was that something you were trying to use or are you just familiar with?” Nestler asked.
“No, I am an instructor on both of those weapons,” she replied.
The former Civil Disturbance Unit officer told Blaze News that Kerkhoff left the U.S. Capitol Police about six months after Jan. 6 and that he had since been unable to reach her. Her colleagues heard she went to work for a three-letter federal intelligence agency, he said.
“She immediately wiped her social media, phone numbers, and email accounts,” he said. “Nobody was able to reach her after that.”
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