A former Boston Police officer is now charged in connection with the riot in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when the feds say he assaulted a cop inside the building.
Joseph Robert Fisher, 52, of Plymouth, is now in federal custody after his arrest Thursday morning on a mix of felony and misdemeanor charges, according to the FBI.
The feds in a press release said that Fisher participated in the storming of the Capitol that day by supporters of then-President Donald Trump, who’d just held a rally nearby as he continued to claim without evidence that the recent election had been stolen. The Senate was due to vote on certifying Trump’s election loss later that day, and ultimately did so after the riot.
The feds said that Fisher specifically entered the U.S. Capitol Building at around 2:24 p.m. on that Jan. 6 via the Senate Wing Door on the north side of the building.
He was then in the Capitol Visitor Center’s Orientation Lobby when “an altercation began between a U.S. Capitol Police Officer and other rioters.”
“As a U.S. Capitol Police Officer pursued a rioter who had deployed pepper spray, Fisher pushed a chair into the Capitol Police Officer,” the FBI wrote in a statement announcing the charges. “Fisher then engaged in a physical altercation with the Capitol Police Officer.”
Fisher is a former Boston Police officer, according to the feds.
It doesn’t appear that Fisher has been paid by the department since 2017. That year, according to city payroll records, someone by that name working as a K-9 officer received $27,140 after being up at $100,428 the year previous.
The police department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The feds said he’s specifically charged with two felony offenses: assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers, and obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder. He’s also accused of misdemeanor counts including acts of physical violence the Capitol grounds or building and disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds.
He’s expected to appear in court later Thursday.
The FBI put out the news release on Thursday in the manner that’s become typical over the intervening couple of years for charges against people allegedly involved in the riot.
“His actions and the actions of others disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress convened to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the presidential election,” the FBI wrote, noting that more than 1,000 people have been arrested in connection with the events of that day, including 320 on charges of “assaulting or impeding” law enforcement.