According to information obtained by The Blaze News, Capitol Police officers encountered a hoodie-wearing individual who allegedly placed a pipe bomb near the Republican National Committee offices during the bombing operation, but did not detain or arrest him.
Previously unreleased security video shows officers holding the suspect next to two patrol cars for nearly three minutes on Jan. 5, 2021, but did not detain or arrest the alleged bomber, instead allowing him to return to the crime scene to ostensibly complete the bombing.
No apparent contact between police and the bomber was uncovered by Capitol Police or the FBI, and the FBI has not been able to identify a suspect despite nearly 44 months of investigation and a $500,000 reward.
The shocking video was discovered and compiled by social media users. “Armitas” The person shared their findings exclusively with The Blaze News. Armitas requested anonymity. The Blaze News verified their findings using Capitol Police surveillance camera files released over the past few months by the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight.
The discovery of the video raises serious questions about what was discussed during the meeting between police and the alleged bomber, which apparently lasted about three minutes, and why officers did not arrest the gunman or report the incident publicly after the Republican National Convention bomb was discovered the next day.
“From what I’ve seen, I don’t see any scenario where there’s no malicious intent.”
It also raises questions about why the FBI did not release the video to its own investigators or the public to clarify or explain the bomber’s interactions with Capitol Police.
“I don’t see any malicious scenario in what I’ve just seen,” said Kyle Serafin, a former FBI special agent who worked the bomber case in 2021 but was removed from duty as surveillance teams closed in on people who may have ties to the hooded suspect. Serafin said he was never shown the video while working the case.
BlazeNews shared the video with Serafin and asked him for his analysis.
Armitas’ video and subsequent Blaze News investigation showed the alleged bomber emerging from an alley between the Capitol Hill Club and the Republican National Committee on First Street Southeast at 8:14 p.m. on Jan. 5.
The suspect walked north past the Capitol Hill Club. At 8:14:30 p.m., the suspect passed under the restaurant’s green awning as a Capitol Police SUV rounded the corner onto First Street. The suspect waved at the patrol car and appeared to point at the driver as the vehicle passed by.
– YouTubeYouTube
The new video is much clearer than grainy security camera footage from the Capitol Hill club previously released by the FBI.
Serafin said the suspicious gesture was “too long to be greeting a stranger,” adding, “Plus, why would someone be trying to attract attention like that if they had a bomb in their backpack?”
Serafin likened the gesture to officers greeting other officers as they pass each other during a shift, or calling out to colleagues on the street while on duty.
As the suspect turned east on C Street, security camera footage showed three Capitol Police officers across the street, near the entrance to the Library of Congress. The suspect appeared to be covering his face with his left arm. The officers stood near the curb for a while but did not appear to see or suspect a person wearing a hooded jacket.
The alleged bomber walked east and stopped at the entrance to Ramsey Court, which runs south from C Street. While he was stopped briefly, a vehicle, believed to be the same Capitol Police SUV, drove up C Street from the east and stopped directly opposite the hooded suspect.
According to security camera footage, officers turned on their vehicle’s red and blue emergency lights at 8:15:44 p.m., at which point the bomber turned around and walked south on Ramsey Street, disappearing from view.
Security camera zooms in
At 8:17:25, the Capitol Police Command Center began manually operating camera 4471, located at the corner of First and C Streets. After zooming in and out several times, the camera captured footage of a second Capitol Police patrol car turning from First Street onto C Street and heading toward the police SUV at 8:18:04 PM.
The command center kept cameras focused on the area of C Street and Ramsey Court for more than 15 minutes.
The patrol car made a Y-turn and stopped at the curb behind the SUV, after which the second patrol car activated its emergency lights.
Serafin said the actions of the Capitol Police patrol cars were effectively a “blockage” operation.
“I saw the ‘interfering vehicle’ and they admitted [the suspect] “Then they’ll circle black and take up a blocking position,” Serafin said, “and then the other vehicles will move back and assist.”
The patrol car had its emergency lights on when the hooded suspect emerged from an alley at 8:19:57 p.m. and crossed the road to where police were parked, video showed.
“It’s a black pipe bomb-like device with a timer and wires attached.”
The suspect hid behind the blinding strobe headlights and emergency beams of the police car and remained hidden from the camera’s view for approximately three minutes. At 8:22:53pm, the suspect apparently emerged from the spread of light and crossed the road again. He was last seen on security camera footage at 8:23:08pm walking down the alley for the second time.
The video shows that the bomb suspect never emerged, and two police cars remained parked nearby in the alley, one of them with its emergency lights on, for another seven minutes.
At 8:30 PM, the driver of the police SUV walked in front of the vehicle’s headlights and returned to his patrol car. Both vehicles left at 8:30:29 PM. The patrol car turned south onto First Street, then west onto D Street Southeast, disappearing from sight at 8:31:36 PM.
The pipe bomb at the Capitol Hill club was discovered just before 12:43 p.m. on Jan. 6. A traffic officer made an emergency broadcast.
“The head of security for the Republican Club just reached out to me and said they have what appears to be an explosive device in the back of the building,” an officer said, according to an audio recording of a Capitol Police call. “Can you send in some troops?”
“Officer, he took a picture of it. It looks like an explosive,” the officer broadcast.
Another officer quickly explained the details: “Advise HDU [Hazardous Devices Unit] “I just saw a photo of the device. It’s a black pipe bomb type device, with a timer and wires,” he said.
– YouTubeYouTube
After the discovery of the RNC bomb, Capitol Police sent out counter-surveillance units to search high-profile potential targets for other explosives, and one of their officers found a second pipe bomb near a park bench behind the Democratic National Committee building at 1:05 p.m.
Security camera footage shows a hooded suspect first entering the DNC building, walking through the building’s garage at 7:43:18 p.m., and leaving via the same sidewalk at 7:54:33 p.m.
New security video showing the interaction between the bomber and Capitol Police only adds to the questions about the pipe bomb.
As The Blaze News reported on August 12, congressional investigators are looking into the possibility that the pipe bomb at the Democratic National Committee was set off around 12:52 p.m., while Vice President-elect Kamala Harris was inside the building.
Such a scenario could explain why the U.S. Secret Service failed to find any explosives, even though a search of the exterior of the Democratic National Committee building was deemed substandard in a report released Aug. 2 by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General.
Bomb-sniffing dogs were used near the garage entrance to the Democratic National Convention just before 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 6, but the search did not include the area immediately surrounding where the explosives were found.
The OIG report criticized the Secret Service for failing to send a bomb squad to the bomb scene or for failing to send technical experts to the scene to ensure the bomb was properly defused.
The FBI has maintained since the bomb investigation began that the pipe bomb was viable, but Serafin said a briefing he received on the incident in March 2021 described the bomb as inert.
Was the bomber a man or a woman?
Serafin said he and other investigators discussed the possibility that the hooded suspect was a black woman, based on physical description and evidence in the case, and that his team had been pursuing someone connected to the DC Metro Rail Card as a suspect in the case.
Investigators had been looking into linking a 55-year-old Air Force contractor to the Metro Rail Card but he has since been removed from the case. The Air Force contractor did not match the physical description of the bomber, but the hooded suspect may have been a relative or acquaintance, Serafin said.
He believes being removed from the bombing case was the main reason he left the FBI’s Washington field office: He was transferred to the New Mexico field office, where he became a whistleblower and was later suspended for leaking classified information to Congress.
Serafin said the discovery of the new video should pressure Congress to subpoena all officers involved in the Jan. 6 bombing response for recorded interviews complete with sworn statements.
“Every member of the Secret Service, Metro Police and Capitol Police who was present during the discovery and investigation of both pipe bombs should be called under oath to testify,” Serafin said. “Clearly that has not happened.”
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