The FBI arrested a woman on Thursday suspected of being the “bullhorn lady” who played a role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Rachel Powell, a mother of eight children, has been charged with obstruction, depredation of government property, entering restricted space without authority and violent entry. She was arrested in New Castle, Pennsylvania, after authorities visited her home in Mercer County.
Agents kicked down the door and searched a vacant house belonging to her on Thursday. Powell, who neighbors said left the property with her family, may be the woman observed in footage donning a pink wool hat and sunglasses sought by the bureau.
The bullhorn lady was seen in videos of the attack yelling orders to other rioters through a bullhorn and using a battering ram to smash a window.
“People should probably coordinate together if you’re going to take this building. We got another window to break to make in-and-out easy,” the woman said.
Help the #FBI identify this woman who allegedly unlawfully entered the U.S. Capitol on January 6. If you have information, submit a tip to https://t.co/buMd8vYXzH. When providing a tip on any of the below photos, please refer to photograph 110. https://t.co/QkV52OYdZ2 @FBIWFO pic.twitter.com/iANB6bZ96z
— FBI (@FBI) January 17, 2021
Neighbors said Powell and her children were possibly in hiding, and the family could have left the property weeks ago.
“We are conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity at that location. We are seeking the whereabouts of Rachel Powell,” the FBI told CBSN Pittsburgh.
Powell’s lawyer, Michael Engle, indicated that she is not a flight risk amid speculation that she may have been in hiding.
“Ms. Powell is certainly not a risk of flight given her strong family ties to the community, the fact that she has young children which she homeschools. She is not an individual of means that would even allow her to flee,” he said.
The Pennsylvania native was featured in a New Yorker report on Tuesday in which she appeared to admit to her participation and insisted that she’s just a regular person.
“I was not part of a plot — organized, whatever,” Powell said. “I have no military background. … I’m a mom with eight kids. That’s it. I work. And I garden and raise chickens and sell cheese at a farmers market.”
She has also made appearances at anti-mask protests in her home state that opposed coronavirus lockdowns and other measures taken by local officials.
The Jan. 6 riot forced much of the Washington, D.C., area into lockdown as 26,000 National Guard troops swarmed the Capitol ahead of President Biden’s inauguration, an event preceded by numerous threats to interrupt the process. In the aftermath of the breach, investigators identified upward of 400 riot suspects, and at least 150 have been arrested thus far.
More than 200,000 tips were submitted to FBI offices across the country, some of which served to implicate suspects alleged to have been involved in the violence.
“Regardless of the level of criminal conduct, we’re not selectively targeting or just trying to charge the most significant crime,” U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin said. “If a crime was committed, we are charging you, whether you were outside or inside the Capitol.”
Top-level prosecutors have also weighed the possibility of upping certain cases to more serious felonies, such as conspiracy and sedition.
Five people died during the riot. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick was fatally injured during the siege. He received the rare tribute of lying in honor in the Capitol rotunda this week before his cremated remains were sent to Arlington National Cemetery. Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran and supporter of former President Donald Trump, was shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer as she attempted to climb through a window into the Speaker’s Lobby. Three others died from “medical emergencies,” according to officials.
