WASHINGTON — A Metropolitan Police Department lieutenant who oversaw the Washington, DC police intelligence branch, was charged this week with tipping off former Proud Boys frontman Enrique Tarrio about an outstanding warrant for his arrest just before the Sept. 6 attack. January against the United States Capitol.
Tarrio, the former president of the Proud Boys, was recently convicted of seditious conspiracy in connection with the attack on the Capitol, along with other members of the far-right group. Tarrio was not in Washington, DC, on January 6 after his arrest in connection with the burning of a Black Lives Matter banner, as he was barred from the city by a judge the day before the attack.
Shane Lamond, 47, was accused on one count of obstruction of justice and three counts of making false statements, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said Friday. A federal grand jury indicted Lamond for obstructing the investigation into the burning of a Black Lives Matter banner on December 12, 2020, as the Proud Boys roamed the streets of Washington, DC, for a pro-Trump event.
Between July 2019 and January 2021, Tarrio and Lamond communicated «at least 500 times using cloud-based messaging services, including Google Voice, Apple iMessages, and Telegram, an encrypted messaging app,» the indictment says. They sent at least 145 messages using a secret chat feature on Telegram that makes messages disappear, the prosecution alleges.
Lamond was in communication with Tarrio about the Black Lives Matter poster. investigation and told Tarrio that he told another unit within the MPD, trying to convince them that the Proud Boys were not racist, the indictment says.
«I told them you’re made up [of] Lots of Latinos and blacks, so it’s not racist. If anything, I said it was political, but then brought attention to the Trump and US flags that Antifa took and set on fire,» Lamond wrote in a message included in the indictment. “I said that all of that would have to be classified as hate. crimes too.»
Lamond sent a similar message to a US Capitol Police official, also cited in the indictment, as saying that he had told his colleagues that if they charged Tarrio with a hate crime, they would have to charge those who called «Antifa hate crimes». .» (There is no federal law that makes politically motivated attacks a hate crime, but DC law does.) allow for a sentencing enhancement if it can be proven that a locally charged crime is based on a «victim’s political affiliation»).
While on a flight from Miami to the Washington, DC, area on January 4, Tarrio passed on the information he received from Lamond about his outstanding warrant to another person, the grand jury said. Tarrio was arrested when he arrived in Washington the same day.
After the Jan. 6 attack, Lamond and Tarrio continued to communicate, with Tarrio telling Lamond that he thought he «could have stopped all this,» meaning the attack on the Capitol, in another message cited by the prosecution.
Lamond said on Jan. 8 that he hoped none of the Proud Boys would be arrested, according to the indictment.
«Of course I can’t say that officially, but I personally support you all and I don’t want to see your group’s name or reputation dragged through the mud,» Lamond said in that message.
Lamond will be arraigned before Federal Judge Zia Faruqui on Friday.