DOJ charges two brothers in Jan. 6 assault on a New York Times photographer
Source: NBC News
Sept. 12, 2024, 1:48 PM EDT / Updated Sept. 12, 2024, 2:27 PM EDT
WASHINGTON — Two brothers from Pennsylvania and New Jersey who allegedly assaulted a New York Times photographer and stole her camera after they stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, were arrested by the FBI on Thursday.
Philip Walker, a 52-year-old from Upper Chichester, Pennsylvania, and David Walker, a 49-year-old from Delran, New Jersey, face charges of forcibly taking an item from a person and assault with the intent to commit another felony, as well as other standard Jan. 6 misdemeanors for entering the Capitol. Philip Walker faces a separate charge of willfully and maliciously destroying personal property, for allegedly discarding the camera in a body of water.
The photographer in question, though not named in court documents, is Erin Schaff, who has written about her assault on Jan. 6, in which she said rioters inside the Capitol threw her to the floor, broke one of her cameras and stole the other. (Schaff has covered fallout from the riot, including photographing a separate Jan. 6 defendant named Brian Mock for a feature story on Mock's relationship with his son, who turned Mock in to the FBI and testified at his dad's trial last year).
Philip Walker, federal authorities said, conducted an interview with the FBI the week after the Jan. 6 attack in which he admitted he got into a physical confrontation with an individual who he claimed to believe was a member of antifa. Philip Walker said that the individual fell to the ground and that he took their camera. “He admitted to leaving the Capitol with the camera, and disposing of it in a body of water while en route to his residence in Pennsylvania,” an FBI affidavit stated.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/doj-charges-two-brothers-jan-6-assault-new-york-photographer-rcna170825
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