Retired Delco firefighter accused of injuring officers and a Del. man who paraded a Confederate flag are charged in the Capitol riot
Jan. 14—A recently retired
Prosecutors said
Meanwhile,
All three men — like the dozens of others charged so far with participating in the melee stirred up by President
Sanford and the Seefrieds have each confessed, authorities said, but all maintain they did not go to
"He obviously was caught up in a bad moment," said Sanford's attorney,
Prosecutors disputed that characterization, noting during a court hearing in
As the government described that discovery, Sanford — appearing for the proceeding via videoconference from the
Still,
"He's not charged with simply taking a free bus ride to D.C.," the judge said, adding that the riot Sanford allegedly participated in "was a danger to our democracy and our legislators."
According to the charging documents in his case, Sanford was turned in by a close friend he had confided in after his photo — showing him with a grizzled gray goatee and a knit cap bearing the initials "CFD" — began circulating among social media sleuths seeking to identify the brawlers involved in the scene outside the
Up until that point, investigators had been pursuing tips that those initials stood for the
The image had been extracted from a video that showed the suspect hurling a fire extinguisher at the helmeted head of an officer who was trying to restrain other rioters. It ricocheted off the officer's helmet and struck one of his colleagues before bouncing again and hitting a third officer as the man who threw it fled the scene.
The tip from Sanford's friend led investigators to refocus their search to
Though Sanford confessed to breaching
The Seefrieds, too, were turned in by a confidant. One of
Agents later identified him and his father as part of a crowd that smashed through a
When investigators tracked them down earlier this week at their rural house situated near a chicken coop close to
Both men were charged with entering a restricted area and disrupting
Sanford, who faces three felony counts for allegedly assaulting officers, could be sentenced to as many as 20 years in prison on the most serious charge.
Contacted at home Thursday, his wife declined to comment.
The
Read the Seefrieds' charging documents:
___
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