Sandra Weyer of Mechanicsburg was arrested Monday morning for allegedly filming an assault on a news photographer while unlawfully inside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot that left five people dead.
The 57-year-old woman faces six federal charges, including disorderly and disruptive conduct, violent entry and interfering with an official proceeding. It is unclear if she has an attorney.
An FBI arrest affidavit states Weyer “not only unlawfully entered the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, but also engaged in obstructive conduct while in the U.S. Capitol.”
Once inside the Capitol building, Weyer crossed paths with several men who were assaulting a woman they had identified as a New York Times photographer, the affidavit states.
U.S. Capitol surveillance cameras allegedly caught Weyer recording the assault.
After the journalist got up, Weyer yelled “F—g traitor, get the f—k out!” and “get her out, mace her!” the document states.
When asked about the incident later, Weyer allegedly said the “woman who was screaming in the Capitol was, um, anti-Trump, let’s put it that way, that’s why they removed her.”
Weyer allegedly deleted her Facebook account a few days later. The FBI provided messages sent from that account.
“I didn’t see any Trump supporters rioting or being violent,” Weyer allegedly wrote. “Now that doesn’t mean that didn’t happen but I only saw Patriots that are sick and tired of being lied to and having the vote stolen from us. We may have broken through the barricades and the doors to the Capitol…but I know that my group was not violent or rioting and I didn’t see any other Patriots rioting or being violent.”
Weyer had been on the FBI’s radar for months. A federal agent identified her in an investigation that led to the arrest of Pauline Bauer, of Kane, Pennsylvania, in May. A photo from that FBI statement shows Bauer and Weyer posing for a portrait with Republican state Rep. Frank Ryan of Lebanon County outside the Pa. state capitol. Ryan was not immediately available for comment.
More than 500 people have been charged in the Capitol attack, including about 50 from Pennsylvania.
NPR’s Investigative and News Apps teams have published a database of everyone arrested so far in connection with the Capitol Riot. This area of reporting is ongoing, and the database is being updated.
Read more from our partners, WITF.
