Jan. 6 rioter who harassed officers in Washington DC court arrested for Capitol attack

WASHINGTON – A man known for publicly harassing police officers who testified in the Jan. 6 cases has been arrested in connection with his own involvement in the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Tommy Tatum, who also testified for a defendant in the Jan. 6 trial, was arrested in Mississippi on Wednesday, according to court records. He is charged with disrupting public order by obstructing, hindering or disrupting the performance of official duties of law enforcement officers, which is both a felony and a misdemeanor.

No attorney for Tatum was listed in court records.

Tatum was a frequent participant in vigils outside the Washington prison where some of the Jan. 6 defendants were being held. NBC News reported that he also harassed officials who testified during the Capitol attack trials.

Last year, Tatum testified for Brian Mock, a defendant in the Jan. 6 shooting who attacked police officers and then represented himself in court. Mock was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison in February and is incarcerated at a federal prison in Minnesota, according to federal prison records.

Tatum was on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, on the front lines as the pro-Trump mob chased outnumbered police officers, eventually making his way to the Lower West Tunnel, where some of the day’s worst violence took place.

“Take their helmets off! Take their helmets off! Take their helmets off,” Tatum said in a video he posted of his activities on Jan. 6. In a 2022 interview with NBC News, Tatum said he yelled that because police officers “were spraying us with this deadly gas, and I think maybe if they take their helmets off, they’ll stop spraying.”

The FBI’s affidavit against Tatum states that he “attended several federal proceedings against the January 6 defendants and was on the defense witness list at several proceedings” and that the video he said he recorded shows him “repeatedly cursing and taunting uniformed police officers” as the police cordon collapsed.

“Don’t run back, stop, get your breath, get your breath, collect yourself,” Tatum said in the video as officers chased. “You’re scared shitless right now.”

“Yeah, run, bitch! Now we got you, you motherfucking shit! Woo! Woo! Woo!” Tatum said in the video.

The FBI said Tatum also walked toward a police line that extended a flagpole forward and at officers’ chest height; it is not clear from body camera footage whether the end of the flagpole touched any of the officers. Once in the tunnel, Tatum was part of a crowd that “made repeated collective efforts to push forward” and advance on the officers, according to the FBI.

More than 1,400 people have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and prosecutors have secured convictions against over 1,000 defendants. Over 540 defendants have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from a few days behind bars to 22 years in a federal prison for a Proud Boys leader convicted of seditious conspiracy.