Trial opens for former NYPD officer charged in riot at US Capitol
WASHINGTON — Body camera video captured a “rage-filled” retired police 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.
But a defense attorney said another video from a different angle shows that former New York City police officer Thomas Webster acted in self-defense after a Metropolitan Police Department officer punched him first.
Jurors saw both videos at the start of Webster’s trial, the first among dozens of cases in which a defendant is charged with assaulting police at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
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.
“He is smiling in that photo, but that smile would soon turn to rage,” she said during the trial’s opening statements.
The prosecutor told jurors they will hear testimony from Noah Rathbun, the officer whom Webster is charged with assaulting with the flag pole.
Webster shoved a bike rack at Rathbun before swinging the flag pole at the officer in a downward 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.
Defense attorney James Monroe accused Rathbun of using excessive force and provoking Webster by punching him in the face.
Webster, now a landscaper, retired from the NYPD in 2011 after 20 years of service. His department service included a stint on then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s private security detail.
Webster brought a gun when he traveled alone to Washington from his home in Florida, New York, a village about 70 miles northwest of New York City. He wore his NYPD-issued bulletproof vest but says he left the pistol in his hotel room when he headed to the Jan. 6 rally where Trump spoke.
Webster faces six counts, including assaulting, resisting or impeding an officer using a dangerous weapon.
Outbreak in China: Workers put up fencing and police restricted who could leave a locked-down area in Beijing on Tuesday as authorities in the Chinese capital stepped up efforts to prevent a major COVID-19 outbreak like the one that has all but shut down the city of Shanghai.
Another 22 cases were found in the last 24 hours, Beijing health officials said, bringing the total to 92 since the outbreak was discovered five days ago.
That is tiny in comparison with Shanghai, where the number of cases has topped 500,000 and at least 190 people have died.
No deaths have been reported from the still-nascent outbreak in Beijing.
NKorea warning: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to accelerate the development of nuclear weapons and threatened to use them if provoked, state media reported Tuesday.
Kim’s remarks during a military parade suggest he will continue provocative weapons tests in a pressure campaign aimed at wresting
concessions from the United States and its allies.
Kim said North Korea could proactively use its nuclear weapons when threatened by attacks and called for his nuclear forces to be fully prepared to go “in motion at any time.”
The parade Monday night marked the 90th anniversary of North Korea’s army — the backbone of the Kim family’s authoritarian rule — and featured thousands of goose-stepping troops and several of North Korea’s most powerful missiles.
Harvard on slavery: Harvard University is vowing to spend $100 million to research and atone for its extensive ties with slavery, the school’s president announced Tuesday, with plans to identify and support the descendants of enslaved people who labored at the Ivy League campus.
President Lawrence Bacow announced the funding as Harvard released a
new report detailing many ways the college benefited from slavery and perpetuated racial inequality.
The report, commissioned by Bacow, found that Harvard’s faculty, staff and leaders enslaved more than 70 Black and Native American people from the school’s founding in 1636 to 1783. It cautions that the figure is “almost certainly an undercount.”
The report says the university “should make a significant monetary commitment, and it should invest in remedies of equal or greater breadth than other universities.” But the report stops short of recommending direct financial reparations.
Bacow said Harvard will attempt to redress its wrongs through “teaching, research and service.” He is creating a committee to implement the report’s suggestions.
Cawthorn cited: U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn was
cited for having a gun at a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint at Charlotte Douglas International Airport on Tuesday morning.
Cawthorn was stopped after agents found the North Carolina Republican with a 9 mm handgun, according to WSOC-TV.
A TSA spokesman confirmed to The Charlotte Observer that agents “detected” and “recovered” a loaded Staccato 9 mm handgun about 9 a.m.
This is the second instance in which Cawthorn has been caught with a gun at a North Carolina airport.
In February 2021, Cawthorn tried to go through security with a gun at the Asheville airport. Security found a Glock 9 mm handgun and confiscated it from the congressman but allowed him to board.
Prop firearm shooting: Law enforcement officials released a trove of video
evidence in the ongoing investigation of a fatal October shooting of a cinematographer by actor and producer Alec Baldwin on the set of a Western movie.
Data files released Monday by the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office include lapel camera recordings taken by a commanding officer as he arrives at a filmset ranch where medics are attending to the wounded, with an evacuation helicopter overhead. A search for the gun leads to the movie production’s armorer, who breaks down in tears.
Other videos show investigators as they debrief Baldwin within hours of the fatal shooting, talking with him inside a compact office — and rehearsal clips that show Baldwin in costume as he practices a quick-draw maneuver with a gun.
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said in a statement that the investigation by his agency remains open and ongoing.