Man Who Harassed Police Officers Testifying in Jan. 6 Cases Arrested on Capitol Attack Charges

WASHINGTON — A man caught for his part in the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol has been linked to harassing police officers in public, including one who testified in cases on January 6.

Court records show that Tommy Tatum was arrested in Mississippi on Wednesday. Tatum has also testified in the trial of a suspect from January 6. The main charge against him is felony civil disorder by obstructing, impeding, or interfering with law enforcement officers performing their jobs. There are also misdemeanor charges against him.

In the court papers, there was no name of an attorney for Tatum.

Tatum had been to many of the vigils outside of the Washington, D.C., jail where some of the people charged on January 6 were being held. NBC News said that he also made fun of police officers who were speaking in trials for the Capitol attack.

Tatum was a witness for Brian Mock last year. Mock was charged with assaulting police officers on January 6 and then defended himself in court. According to federal jail records, Mock was found guilty and given a 33-month sentence in federal prison in February. He is currently being held in Minnesota.

Tatum was on the west front of the U.S. Capitol on January 6 when a crowd of Trump supporters ran down police officers who were outnumbered. He finally got to the lower west tunnel, which was the scene of some of the worst fighting of the day.

“Take their helmets away!” Take their helmets away! Hats off to them, Tatum said in a video he shared on Jan. 6 of what he was doing. It was 2022, and Tatum told NBC News that he yelled because police “were spraying us with that deadly gas, and in my mind, I’m thinking if they take their helmets off maybe they’ll stop spraying.”

According to the FBI’s complaint against Tatum, he “attended multiple federal trials of January 6 defendants and was included on defense witness lists for multiple trials.” The affidavit also says that the video he admitted to recording shows him “repeatedly berating and taunting uniformed police officers” as the police line breaks.

“Don’t run back, just stand your ground, take a deep breath, and regroup,” Tatum told the cops being chased in the video. “They’re scared as s— right now.”

“Okay, b——, run!” Oh no, we’ve got you now! “Woowoowoo!” In the video, Tatum said.

The FBI said Tatum also approached a police line with a flagpole extended forward and close to the chests of officers. Body camera footage does not show if the end of the flagpole touched any officers. The FBI says that once Tatum got inside the tunnel, he was part of a group that “repeatedly collectively efforts to surge forward” against police.

Over 1,400 people have been charged with involvement in the attack on the Capitol on January 6, and more than 1,000 of them have been found guilty. Over 540 defendants have been given jail sentences ranging from a few days to 22 years in federal prison for a leader of the Proud Boys who was found guilty of seditious conspiracy.