Prosecutor Admits Defendant Did Not Use Bear Spray Against Officers During Capitol Hill Riot
“It does appear the bear spray that Mr. [Julian Elie] Khater was holding 10 minutes earlier was not used.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Gilead Light admitted Julian Elie Khater, 32, did not use the bear spray he had in his hand during the January 6 Capitol Hill riot:
Julian Elie Khater, 32, of State College, Pennsylvania, and George Pierre Tanios, 39, of Morgantown, West Virginia, are charged in spraying the chemical irritant at Capitol police officers Brian Sicknick and Caroline Edwards, as well as Metropolitan Police Department officer Damian Chapman.
However, during the hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Gilead Light acknowledged to Hogan that bear spray was never used, despite video clips presented earlier in the case.
“It does appear the bear spray that Mr. Khater was holding 10 minutes earlier was not used,” Light said, saying empty mace containers were recovered from Tanios and Khater’s homes.
However, Light maintained purchasing and carrying the bear spray showed intent: “Why else would you bring bear spray — it’s an uncontested fact there’s no bears in downtown D.C.”
Prosecutors said “Khater and Tanios schemed for trouble”:
“They prepared together, traveled together, planned together, and executed their attack, giving rise to a separate charge of conspiracy to attack law enforcement officers,” prosecutors wrote. “This brazen, and ultimately cowardly act of spraying unprotected officers in the face while looking elsewhere speaks to the dangerousness of the defendants.”
Khater’s attorney, Joseph Tacopina, told U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Hogan that Light did not “mention the two defendants had been doused by pepper spray administered by police moments earlier.” More from WTOP:
However, attorneys for Khater and Tanios said prosecutors have only shown video and photos in which the two “appear” to be holding a canister, which was removed from a backpack.
In addition, the wind was blowing as much as 20 mph at the time of the incident.
“Given these circumstances, the Government will seemingly have difficulty establishing that it was Mr. Khater and not another, even possibly law enforcement, responsible for the ‘something’ that struck the officers in this case,” wrote Tacopina and co-counsel Chad Seigel and Alvin Thomas in their motion seeking pretrial bond.
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Are we going to pretend like bear spray is a firearm now?
What crime can you be punished for by carrying bear spray with intent? This is the dumbest level of douchebaggery that would be a joke if it weren’t so punitive and petty.
Since there is not a SINGLE documented case of anyone ever dying from Bear Spray. In fact, it is considered much milder than mace.
What Are the Effects of Bear Spray on Humans?
The Pepper Spray store explains that human pepper spray typically contains approximately 1.33 percent active CRC. While the CRC levels are in the same range, the main difference between human defense pepper spray and bear spray is that bear pepper spray must first be tested and approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ensure the products are humane.
Comic irony.
Next charge – they had bottled water – and everyone knows water can kill ! ! !
> > People can drown !
So, charge them all with attempted murder. And keep them in jail for 6 months before a trial can be scheduled, because … equity.
THIS IS AN EXTRAORDINARY ABUSE OF POWER FOR POLITCAL PURPOSES.
IF THIS HAPPENED UNDER TRUMP — THE COUNTRY WOULD BE AWASH IN PEACEFUL (wink, wink) PROTESTS
H2O is a well-known and prolific environmental hazard that is a first-order forcing of suffocation, and when frozen can be used to cause blunt force trauma and a progressive per chance catastrophic loss of viability. Ban high-capacity water bottles.
DHMO must go go go!
These guys were all prepared for Antifa/BLM, not the police
Yes, given diverse precedents ove a multi-trimester period, they prepared for self-defense with non-lethal force. They saw what happened to the White Hispanic, the people trapped in their vehicles attempting to escape the Antifa and SSBLM mobs, and the teen who defended himself with measured armed force against multiple protestors, summarily incarcerated with a multi-million dollar bail, and still facing charges for acting in self-defense.
Well, of course we are.
DC has effectively outlawed firearms in defiance of Heller and MacDonald (particularly for nonresidents); so like England, they will now attack the next layer of “loophole” that dares allow the hoi polloi to defend themselves. In England, it was knives and cricket bats. Here, it’s pepper spray. Last time (and it will be the very last time) I visited an attraction in DC, a building guard gave me a raft of s* for having pepper spray with me, despite the fact that it was perfectly legal.
“You’d better make sure you keep that in your pocket, pal.”
“It would never have left my pocket at all, if you hadn’t forced me to take it out for you.”
I haven’t kept up on defense spray law, but when I finally escaped from behind the Cod Curtain, it was illegal there to purchase or own normal anti-personnel pepper spray without the same discretionary (“probably-won’t-issue”) license as a handgun. In fact, I believe all of Canada does or did operate under this same rule, which is exactly how people carrying bear spray (which was OK and plentiful) became a “thing.”
“Why else would you bring bear spray — it’s an uncontested fact there’s no bears in downtown D.C.”
You arrogant asshole. Pay no attention to the rioters, the crazed muslims, the grrrrl carjackers, the white-hating gangs, and all the other dangers people like you nurture in Washington DC.
Tee shirt: “I visited Washington DC — and all I could have was this lousy bear spray.”
Pure and simple, this is another political persecution.
If the two defendants could convince the court that they are members of BLM or Antifa, they would be freed without bail in seconds. Then, the media would go silent to cover it up.
Since when is carrying bear spray illegal?
And carrying bear spray is evidence of intent of WHAT?
He obviously came prepared for a confrontation with Antifa people, who were supposed to be there and be ready to fight.
The prosecution documents that I have seen completely ignore this and pretend that the only reason these self defense products would be carried is because they wanted to storm the Capitol. But that takes their statements out of context.
I hope if this guy did really engage in violence that day during the riots, they throw the book at him. But lets face it, the federal prosecutors are going to be all elite, namby pampy Democrats.
Let us call ‘bear spray’ what it is: pepper (or capsaicin if you want to be picky)
From the Sabered site: “Civilian and law enforcement pepper sprays range from 0.18% to 1.33% Major Capsaicinoids. Bear Sprays range from 1.0% to 2.0% major capsaicinoids.”
So the pepper spray that the capitol police were using and the identical pepper spray that some in the crowd were using have no inherent good or evil in them. There is no magic substance which only affects bears (although some pepper spray includes an UV marker, which appears not to be an issue here) The Trump supporters *expected* Antifa to attack, as they had before. Carrying pepper spray in that situation is *not* preparing for an assault (on several hundred *armed* security, ha!), but a practical way of keeping your face from being beaten in by a dozen or so masked thugs.
You seem to have stumbled onto an outlier website. Every website to which I have ever referred on this topic insists that bear spray contains much less capsaicin than anti-personnel pepper spray. Example:
I won’t even bother to cite the rest — to read other comparisons, just go to DuckDuckGo and run the search: pepper spray bear spray. Some of them even cite this fact immediately in the hit summary.
Bear spray is the “rock salt” of pepper sprays.
“it’s an uncontested fact there’s no bears in downtown D.C.”
I don’t see how anybody can make that statement.
There have been deer spotted on the National Mall.
In 1807, two grizzly bear cubs briefly lived on the White House grounds.
I aint seen no bulls on Wall Street that aint made of bronze
Funny, no bulls but lots of bullshit.
Maybe no bears, but lots of weasels.
There will now be a call for “reasonable” bear spray control …
DEMS NOT TOO SMART
They are against BEAR SPRAY – because they oppose the right to BEAR arms.
I wear tank tops.It’s my right to bare arms.
What about the right to Arm Bears?
No known instances… but arming deer is apparently becoming de rigeur
(1, 2).
Next thing you know Yogi Bear and Boo Boo will be stealing pickinick baskets at gun point.
Already happening, ever since they reassigned Ranger Smith to patrol downtown Portland.
Bear Lunches Matter!
And then control of Deet.
Commons sense bear spray control
I just committed the capital crime of farting
omg and whew
Now I think I know where Saddam Hussein hid his weapons of mass destruction.
I bet there were people who were tried at Nuremburg who lied less than people working in the DC prosecutor’s office. Those people better start asking themselves what would happen if they ended up on the stand charged with perverting Justice.
I can’t believe these two are still in prison for the lies of the FBI and DOJ. The only murder was an unarmed woman shot to death by a Capitol police officer who is being protected. This whole thing stinks, and it is getting closer to Tar and Feather time. It will NOT end well. These liars must be held accountable.
Solvent based tar, or hot tar?
I prefer high-tech tar and feathers — cyanoacrylate and packing peanuts
Yes, it do burn.
Maybe time for a riot (I mean peaceful protest) at the DOJ ? Who’s with me ?
>> DC is only 2 hours from my house.
>> I’ve got a lot of vacation time save up – could use a few days off.
>> Weather is good – I need some sun. Bring SPF 20.
Prosecutors said “Khater and Tanios schemed for trouble”
Ha. Anybody who sets foot in D.C. is well advised to be prepared for trouble.
Heard many a Antifa last summer used Bear Spray on police. So are they going to declare it a weapon
Only when used by those who are not agents of the regime.
Subotai Bahadur
They have everyone cowered that they will be next, thrown in the jail and the keys thrown away
And they are right, where’s the pushback from our so called Republican leaders
Unfortunately including President Trump, and I don’t give a damn about optics
They stood for him, he must stand with these people
Bullshit! Facts are facts and any one that broke windows or illegally entered the capital wasn’t “standing up” for Trump, the Bill of Rights or the Constitution! They were breaking the damn law and doing no service to conservatives or Trump! What they thought roaming the halls of Congress would change something? We can’t on one hand bitch about BLM and ANTIFA while on the other hand giving a pass to a few hundred jagg-offs who acted insolent and ignorant! We need to be 100% truthful and admit these “protesters” were ignorant and acted as such. They weren’t innserectionist but were just stupid! They all deserve the charges and please don’t be silly and say, “what about the BLM or ANTIFA idiots from last year”, yeah. . .they were wrong and deserve prosecution but screaming, “what about. . .” is a piss poor argument.
Protests are also called “demonstrations.” For conservatives to act in the way you described was possibly necessary to demonstrate how upset they were with fake news, the constant lying attacks against the president, and the stolen election. They’re lucky the demonstration wasn’t more violent. A stolen national election is something that should have started a shooting war, but conservatives are far too, well, conservative.
Am I excusing their behavior? No, I’m giving a reason for it. And morally what they did is vastly different than the actions of BLM and Antifa, which (as BLM and Antifa avow) is meant to break the system and to destroy society as we know it, and not to insist upon its working as it’s supposed to work.
At least the rioters at the capitol were taking their grievances directly to the institution responsible instead of torching and looting a foot locker.
I agree with the gist of what you wrote, except this part:
No, actually, it isn’t. It’s directly on point. The idea that “what-aboutism” is a fallacy is itself a fallacy.
What is sauce for the goose must be sauce for the gander. So long as they treat their own actual rioters with kid gloves they have no right to prosecute our “rioters”, whose offenses are quite petty even on their own, let alone in comparison. The law says he who comes for equity must have clean hands; the prosecutors’ hands in these cases are far from clean.
Breaking windows is bad, except in comparison with what they condone on their side. Mere trespass, on the other hand, which is the worst that most of those in the Capitol did, isn’t even that bad. They were in the people’s house; by what right were they excluded?
As I see it, those who walked in through an open door, with no idea that they weren’t supposed to, are guilty of nothing. And those who knew they shouldn’t have been there were protesting an exclusion of dubious validity. That may not completely excuse the offense, but it mitigates it.
What a time to be reading Gulag Archipelago…. (audio).
I mean why bare arms when you can’t hunt in the city?
Ms. Chastain:
Seriously, what indication is there that we are subject to a rule of law instead of the tyranny of the whims of those in power? There is no evidence that they had possession of any bear spray. Merely that they may have possibly [but unidentifiably and unconfirmably] been in possession of containers that may have kinda-sorta looked like containers similar to bear spray inside the boundaries of the District of Columbia and/or the Capitol grounds. Even if it was bear spray [which there is no indication of], there is as far as is known no statutory law or previous decree making such possession a crime. Khater and Tanios are being held in jail for supposedly being involved in the death of Capitol Police Officer Sicknick by spraying him with bear spray and/or beating him in the head with a fire extinguisher.
Officer Sicknick was beatified by Congress, with his cremated body lying in State in Congress and interred at Arlington National Cemetery because of his supposed martyrdom. The results of his autopsy were declared to be classified. They were not released until months later when the news was supposed to be lost and ignored in the uproar of other civil disorder.
When the results WERE released the autopsy stated that he was healthy when the demonstration was over, but felt ill in the Capitol Police office afterwards. He was taken to the hospital where he was placed under medical care. While under medical care A DAY LATER, he died of two strokes that took place while he was under care in the hospital. The autopsy showed no exposure to bear spray, CS, CN, or Chemical Mace. There was no physical trauma inflicted on him by a fire extinguisher or other means. The Coroner formally stated that Sicknick died of natural causes. The entire public worship of him by our politicians of both parties and law enforcement was a deliberate, knowing hoax.
Khater and Tanios are being held indefinitely for something that even if proven is not a crime, and supposedly are going to be charged with a capital crime that did not occur. The regime’s prosecutors are imprisoning them outside the law and there is no real prospect of them being released. How does that fit with the concept of liberty under law made by the consent of the governed?
Subotai Bahadur
Numerous people are languishing in prison under conditions characteristically used for political prisoners in totalitarian states. This is basically psychological torture in part to pre-emptively punish but also break them to confess to state-defined “crimes”. All of this is run under the direction of the AG…at the behest of the Democrat Party. As to why only Warren has spoken out about this is beyond weird….
Which is the exact same thing that they are now accused of “plotting” to spray. So the police who actually sprayed them are fine, but God forbid if they had planned to spray someone it’s the end of the world.
And why not? If they can make the unequal-protection case for a mere lie, they can certainly make it for a spray.
Prosecutors claim carrying bear spray shows intent to attack police. But this was a pro-police crowd that expected to be siding with police against Antifa and BLM, the Democratic Party’s twin Brownshirt organizations of criminal riot and mass assault who had violently attacked every conservative rally for almost five years.
This is a blatant fraud and lie:
However, Light maintained purchasing and carrying the bear spray showed intent: “Why else would you bring bear spray — it’s an uncontested fact there’s no bears in downtown D.C.”
“They prepared together, traveled together, planned together, and executed their attack, giving rise to a separate charge of conspiracy to attack law enforcement officers,” prosecutors wrote.
Then it turns out they didn’t use their bear spray? Sheesh.
The officer told a family member he was ok except for being sprayed buy some pepper spray
He didn’t say he was sprayed by protesters…
They have everyone cowered. This is insane
We have a lot of Lawyers here, will any of you help or set up something to bring this Gitmo DC style to the forefront?
We have to gel these people
My God, every day, the DOJ shows that there are new levels of corruption
The DOJ et al. A new/old kind of religion. A progressive condition.
Call it what it’s becoming: the Committee for State Security
AKA Komitet Gosudarstvennoi Bezopasnosti
Prosecutor says bear spray shows intent. So are the police showing intent to violate everyone’s rights by carrying spray, tasers and guns. Silliness.
Well, yes, intent is apparently not fungible.
I own a gun that numerous Democrats have (scriptedly verbatim) dubbed “a weapon of war good for one thing and one thing only — killing the greatest number of people in the shortest amount of time.”
Police officers keep this exact same gun in their car, where it is called a “patrol rifle.”
Intent is so elusive and hard to pin down, isn’t it?
Some people (e.g. capitol police) have rites, not rights but superior to ordinary citizens. Case in point, the officer who had the rite (a la planned parent/hood) to commit elective abortion of a woman who posed no plausible, probable, imminent, and certainly no immediate risk to him or anyone in the vicinity.
According to haters the 6th was a violent event by White PrideMAGA types, except aren’t Khater and Tanios African or AsianMiddle Eastern names?
Thought crimes will be prosecuted, persecuted with greater intensity and venom than actual crimes. And the Biden military junta is a value-added bonus. That said, I guess they can abort the baby, cannibalize her profitable parts, sequester her carbon pollutants, and have her, too.
What am I missing here? How can you be charged for assault on a police officer if you never actually used the weapon that allegedly struck them?
If it serves the interests of State Security, it can be done and will be done.
Subotai Bahadur
Technically, “putting someone in fear of violence” is assault, even if you actually do nothing. That’s why battery is a separate offense.
https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/assault-battery-aggravated-assault-33775.html
Waiting for someone to deploy some putresine. That would be fun to watch