Retired Boston cop arrested for assault on a cop during Jan. 6 riot
A retired Boston cop was arrested Thursday for assaulting a police officer with a chair during the Jan. 6 riots at the US Capitol, reports said.
James Robert Fisher, 52, was busted Thursday morning by FBI agents at his Plymouth, Mass. home after eagle-eyed online sleuths tracked him down, according to NBC.
A current Boston cop who knew Fisher identified him afterward.
Fisher wore a red jacket and a beanie sporting the logos of several Boston teams on Jan. 6, NBC said, as he and other fanatical supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed and trashed the Capitol Building after the Florida man’s 2020 election loss.
During the mayhem, Fisher tossed a chair at a cop who was chasing a pepper-spray wielding protestor.
Then he assaulted him in a confrontation that ended up with Fisher on the ground.
Federal authorities have charged him with assaulting an officer and obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder, among other things, the Boston Globe said.
Fisher left the Boston Police Department in 2016 after more than two decades on the force – including the K-9 unit, according to a department spokesman.
Fisher’s cell phone records show he was inside the building, and he was caught on video tossing the chair.
The disgraced Beantown cop often found his way into the media before the Jan. 6 attack, according to NBC.
He was once featured as a police expert in a true crime TV show, and appeared in the background of a 2013 press conference as Massachusetts authorities pursued the Boston Marathon bomber.
Fisher joined the Boston PD on Dec. 21, 1994 and retired Dec. 14, 2016, according to the Globe. For the last year-and-a-half of his career, he was assigned to the “medically incapacitated section,” the Globe said.
Fisher now joins a group of about 1,000 other people who have been charged with federal crimes in connection with the riots, which interrupted the certification of President Joe Bide’s electoral victory and led to to five deaths and scores of injuries.
Authorities have made new arrests almost every week. And more than 540 defendants have already pleaded guilty.
