2 MARCH 25, 2021 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Retired Richmond Hill cop cuff ed for role
in Jan. 6 riot at U.S. Capitol building: Feds
BY JACOB KAYE
JKAYE@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
A retired NYPD officer from Richmond Hill
turned herself in to the FBI Tuesday to
face charges related to the raid on the U.S.
Capitol building on Jan. 6, according to federal
prosecutors.
Sara Carpenter, 51, will appear in Brooklyn
Federal Court on Tuesday, March 23, on charges
of entering a restricted building, disorderly conduct
in a restricted building and violent entry
on Capitol grounds for her alleged participation
in the January riot, which disrupted a joint session
of Congress gathered to certify President
Joe Biden’s election victory.
Carpenter, who retired from the city’s police
force in 2004, allegedly stormed the Capitol with
thousands of others after being instructed by
then-President Donald Trump, whose rally the
former-cop attended earlier that day, to do so,
the feds said.
The FBI was given an anonymous tip about
Carpenter’s involvement in the insurrection on
Jan. 7, according to the authorities.
Carpenter had allegedly called a relative after
the raid and told them that she had decided to
go back home after being teargassed inside the
Capitol, according to the charges.
Carpenter was interviewed by members of
the FBI later that month, telling them that she
had indeed driven from her Richmond Hill home
to Washington, D.C., to attend the rally, later
participating in the insurrection, according to
prosecutors.
Carpenter also told law enforcement that she
had taken a video of the scene from inside the
Capitol, which she voluntarily shared with the
FBI the next day.
In a separate video of the melee, Carpenter is
seen shooting the footage she sent to the FBI, according
to the authorities.
Documenting the scene around her, Carpenter
is allegedly seen filming before making her way
to the exit.
Before leaving though, she took out a tambourine
and shook it several times, law enforcement
said.
FBI agents later found the tambourine inside
Carpenter’s home, according to the feds.
Agents also found a map of downtown Washington,
D.C., inside a pocket of the coat Carpenter
was believed to be wearing the day of the
attack.
Carpenter is not the first former NYPD officer
to be cuffed in connection to the Jan. 6 riot.
Thomas Webster, a 54-year-old retired officer
who served in the NYPD unit that provided
security for the mayor, Gracie Mansion and City
Hall, was arrested in late February for his alleged
involvement in the raid.
Webster, who retired from the NYPD in 2011,
is charged with attacking an officer with the
Metropolitan Police Department in addition to
participating in the insurrection.
Sara Carpenter (red hat) turned herself into the
FBI for her involvement in the Jan. 6 raid on the
U.S. Capitol. Photo courtesy of the offi ce of the USANYE
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