Officials say that a Kentucky man has been charged with allegedly using a flagpole to smash a window in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s lobby moments before Ashli Babbitt was fatally shot.
42-year-old Chad Barrett Jones of Mount Washington was shown on video wearing a red hooded jacket and gray skullcap; he was among the mob who tried to breach a barricaded door while chanting, “Break it down!” and “Let’s f-cking go!” according to a federal affidavit.
Shortly after, 35-year-old Babbitt, an Air Force veteran and QAnon supporter was killed by a police officer after she tried climbing through a smashed window on Jan. 6.
According to the affidavit, two days later, one of Jones’ relatives told the FBI that he watched TV coverage of the riots where he saw the suspect using “a rolled-up Trump flag to attempt to break the glass on an interior door … to the left of Ashli Babbitt.”
In the W-1 document, the family member claimed that he assumed that Jones, who he said had been at a previous Trump rally in DC, noticed on Facebook that the suspect was preparing to go to the Capitol.
According to the complaint, when the relative told Jones that he had to contact the authorities, Jones wanted to explain “why it all was happening and why it was a hoax.”
Another witness who said he was a friend of Jones’ told the FBI he saw internet footage of Jones breaking a window near Babbitt before she was shot.
The witness said Jones called him on Jan. 7, when according to the document, he said he “was in trouble and called himself an idiot.”
The complaint says that Jones said he “had been in the middle of the crowd and was able to walk into the United States Capitol without any problem.”
Jones faces a slew of charges that include an assault on a federal officer, certain acts during a civil disorder, destruction of government property over $1,000, obstruction of justice, an unlawful entry on restricted building or grounds, violent entry, and disorderly conduct.
He is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday, according to the FBI’s statement.
