In a bright American flag jacket, the man seen assaulting police officers with a fire extinguisher during the U.S. Capitol Riots has been identified as 53-year-old Robert Scott Palmer.
The Huffington Post reports that Palmer can be seen on camera spraying officers with a fire extinguisher and then throwing the empty canister at them. The outlet spoke to the Florida husband and father, who complained that Capitol police hit him with crowd control munition. There is footage of him as he showed off the bruises he received to a female journalist during the riots, identifying himself as Robert Palmer from Clearwater, Florida.
Speaking with the outlet, he lamented that he didn’t do anything wrong that the Biden administration is attempting to “vilify the patriots” who participated in the riot.
“I’m just going about it and letting them make the mistakes that they want and ruin the country as they want, and I’m just trying to live my life right now,” he told HuffPost, and “wasn’t anything I had made special — [I] just bought it in a store.”
“I’m just going to just leave it like that. I’m not getting myself any — not deeper, ’cause I didn’t do anything wrong — but I’m not involving myself anymore,” Palmer said before hanging up when asked about the fire extinguisher.
Palmer has a criminal record, which includes being sentenced on battery and felony fraud charges.
HuffPost was able to identify Palmer from a tip received from a woman who is a member of an online sleuth community. While quarantining with COVID-19, the woman, only identified as “Amy,” decided to use some of her free time to track down Capitol rioters. She worked with a group called @capitolhunters to pore over video and photographs.
The FBI is still tracking down insurrectionists who took part in the riots on January 6 over Donald Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud in the Presidential Election. They are asking for the public’s help in identifying suspects who were involved in the riot.