Newly revealed court documents purportedly name U.S. Capitol Police officer Bryant Williams as the riot cop who famously shoved January 6 protester Derrick Vargo off a nearly three story high staircase during the 2021 Capitol riot, causing the citizen to suffer a fractured ankle and other injuries that required surgeries, plates, and screws to fix.
According to a report by journalist Stephen Horn, Williams was identified as the officer who shoved Vargo off the ledge off the West side of the Capitol building last month in court documents from United States of America v. Barry Bennet Ramey.
Man identified as Capitol Police Officer Bryant Williams (Stephen Horn Journalism / Locals)
Videos from January 6 show Vargo climbing the side of a staircase holding a flag as officers attempted to push protestors back, only for him to retreat just before being shoved off by a Capitol Police officer.
Vargo sustained numerous injuries and went unresponsive as he was carted off on a stretcher.
According to Horn’s report, Williams was labeled a “victim” in the case against January 6 defendant Barry Bennet Ramey, who was accused and convicted of spraying a chemical agent at Williams and another officer.
Williams testified that he was suffering from visual impairment from Ramey’s chemical spray, adding that “everything started getting kind of blurry,” before he went to the Northwest staircase and shoved a non-violent Vargo off a three story ledge.
In an interview with investigative journalist Cara Castronuova following his devastating fall, Vargo accused the Capitol Police of “police brutality” and attempted murder.
“On January 6, I was a victim of Capitol Police brutality. They tried to murder me. Plain and simple. They did murder some other people, but they tried, and they didn’t get away with it with me. I’m the only one that was attempted to be murdered that can speak to the other four,” Vargo said.
Vargo explained that upon walking to the Capitol building, he noticed barriers missing and law enforcement pepper spraying protesters. He claimed that he was inspired by a protester who was waving an American flag on an elevated part of the scaffolding and decided to take a similar action by getting up on a ledge to wave his own Trump flag.
“I had my Trump flag and I decided I wanted to go up the side of the steps. I didn’t want to get in any confrontation cause I just wanted to wave my Trump flag up there, like the guy did with the American flag. That was very inspiring,” he said.
“So, I went up the side of the building, and as I’m grabbing on one of the cement blocks to get over, one of the officers shoved a pepper spray device and started spraying my face. At that point I was like, ‘okay, I want to wave my Trump flag. I don’t want to die.’ So I got up and started walking to the right, cause that was it, I’m not going to do it anymore. I’m not going to wave the flag. And as I’m going, officer takes both hands and shoves me right off the building.”
Vargo said in late February that he plans to sue U.S. Capitol Police for his injuries, attempted murder, and mental anguish.
“[Officer Williams] knows exactly where he was on that Capitol building. You know, he works there,” Vargo told The Epoch Times. “He’s not just a citizen. He works there. He knows how high up he is. He shoved me not with just one arm but two. That means he wanted me off of it. It was very intentional.”
“What do I think of what happened to me that day? Horrible. I mean, it’s attempted murder,” said Vargo.
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This news and commentary by Andrew White originally appeared on Valiant News.