A retired NYPD officer from Richmond Hill turned herself in to the FBI Tuesday to face charges related to the raid on the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, according to federal prosecutors.
Sara Carpenter, 51, will appear in Brooklyn Federal Court on Tuesday, March 23, on charges of entering a restricted building, disorderly conduct in a restricted building and violent entry on Capitol grounds for her alleged participation in the January riot, which disrupted a joint session of Congress gathered to certify President Joe Biden’s election victory.
Carpenter, who retired from the city’s police force in 2004, allegedly stormed the Capitol with thousands of others after being instructed by then-President Donald Trump, whose rally the former-cop attended earlier that day, to do so, the feds said.
The FBI was given an anonymous tip about Carpenter’s involvement in the insurrection on Jan. 7, according to the authorities. Carpenter had allegedly called a relative after the raid and told them that she had decided to go back home after being teargassed inside the Capitol, according to the charges.
Carpenter was interviewed by members of the FBI later that month, telling them that she had indeed driven from her Richmond Hill home to Washington, D.C., to attend the rally, later participating in the insurrection, according to prosecutors.
Carpenter also told law enforcement that she had taken a video of the scene from inside the Capitol, which she voluntarily shared with the FBI the next day.
In a separate video of the melee, Carpenter is seen shooting the footage she sent to the FBI, according to the authorities. Documenting the scene around her, Carpenter is allegedly seen filming before making her way to the exit. Before leaving though, she took out a tambourine and shook it several times, law enforcement said.
FBI agents later found the tambourine inside Carpenter’s home, according to the feds. Agents also found a map of downtown Washington, D.C., inside a pocket of the coat Carpenter was believed to be wearing the day of the attack.
Carpenter is not the first former NYPD officer to be cuffed in connection to the Jan. 6 riot.
Thomas Webster, a 54-year-old retired officer who served in the NYPD unit that provided security for the mayor, Gracie Mansion and City Hall, was arrested in late February for his alleged involvement in the raid.
Webster, who retired from the NYPD in 2011, is charged with attacking an officer with the Metropolitan Police Department in addition to participating in the insurrection.
Carpenter will make her first appearance in court Tuesday afternoon.
