Police officer attacked on Jan. 6 says mother was attacked with punches hours after speaking at Trump trial – NBC4 Washington

A former Washington, DC police officer who was attacked at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, says his 78-year-old mother was the victim of a swatting call, hours after the officer spoke out before former President Donald Trump’s trial in New York.

Michael Fanone is one of the most vocal critics of the people who stormed the Capitol and the man who occupied the White House that day.

During the Capitol riot, Fanone was dragged into the crowd, attacked, tasered, had his badge and radio stolen, and suffered a heart attack.

President Joe Biden’s campaign team has invited him and actor Robert De Niro to speak outside the New York courthouse where Trump is on trial on Tuesday.

“I am just one representative of the hundreds of police officers who were attacked that day by Donald Trump supporters who were inspired by his lies,” Fanone said.

“They stood there and fought, for us, for you,” said De Niro.

Fanone, who says he voted for Trump in 2016, says Trump supporters spat on him and called him a traitor.

Then, around 8 p.m., Fanone’s mother’s house in Fairfax County, Virginia, was surrounded by police, he said.

“I received calls from the Fairfax County Police Department telling me that my mother had been the target of a swatting incident. They had received several calls, more than a dozen, that were described to me as a shooting spree at my mother’s house,” Fanone said.

He said the police also told him they had received a manifesto.

“It was written in the first person, as if it were me, describing actions I had committed, that I had killed my mother,” Fanone said.

He said his mother was horrified when she saw police outside her house.

“This was a coordinated action that required multiple people to carry out,” Fanone said.

Fairfax County Police have not released a statement on the incident.

“There is a pattern here,” Fanone said. “When I speak publicly about what happened to me on January 6, I receive threats. There is always an increase, and that is unacceptable.”