Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Mother of Jan. 6 officer ‘swatted’ at Va. home hours after he criticized Trump

Former D.C. police officer Michael Fanone, shown here appearing before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, has been the subject of threats since that day.  (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
By Peter Hermann and Victoria Bisset Washington Post

Michael Fanone, a former D.C. police officer who was violently assaulted during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, criticized former president Donald Trump on Tuesday outside the courthouse hosting the hush money trial. Hours later, he said his mother was “swatted” at her Virginia home.

Fanone said that his 75-year-old mother, in her nightgown, opened the door to officers at her home in Fairfax County. “She was scared,” Fanone told The Washington Post in an interview Thursday morning.

A fake note – purporting to be from Fanone – had been emailed to a number of people, claiming the writer killed their mother and planned to go to the recipient’s school to shoot others. It provided the home address of Fanone’s mother. NBC News first reported the incident.

Fanone said the swatting – a form of online harassment involving the reporting of fake crimes to draw an emergency law enforcement response to target a victim – is frightening.

The swatting email “is sending law enforcement officers into a situation where they are acting under the assumption there is an active shooter in progress,” Fanone said. “It’s inherently dangerous. All it takes is one misinterpretation of someone’s actions – my mother in this case – and it could go catastrophically wrong.”

Fanone, who has been subject to threats since he became the face of the law enforcement response to the attack on the Capitol, and called out lawmakers who played down the attack, said the majority of his interactions with the public are now negative. “My mere presence puts people in an absolute rage,” he said.

Fanone attributed the swatting incident to anger over his criticism of Trump and what happened on Jan. 6.

The Fairfax County Police Department said in a statement that they were alerted to a suspicious email by the Montgomery County Police Department. Officers responded to a block in Alexandria around 7:40 p.m., though a spokeswoman for the county police declined to confirm the target of the swatting incident, citing a policy of not identifying victims of crimes.

The response was for a welfare check and officers “made contact with the resident, who was confirmed to be okay,” the statement said. “Detectives from our Threat Assessment Management (TAM) Unit are investigating the circumstances of this case and the swatting nature of the initial email.”

The email, which was reviewed by The Post, identifies the author as Fanone and says “I have killed my … mom.” The person then threatens to go to shoot people at a school.

Fanone described the police response to his mother’s home as aggressive, and said they asked her where her son was. Fanone said his mother showed the officers pictures of him and told them of his background with police. He also said his mother described the officers as wearing tactical gear. A police official, speaking under condition of anonymity due to an ongoing investigation, said officers responded in patrol clothes.

Fanone said that on Wednesday, someone also sent an unsolicited pizza to his mother’s home.

Earlier on Tuesday, Fanone had joined a campaign event for President Biden outside of the New York courthouse where attorneys presented their closing arguments in the case against Trump over charges he falsified business records to cover up hush money payments to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels.

Fanone, who voted for Trump in 2016, said that the former president would govern as an “authoritarian who answers to and serves only himself.”

Fanone said supporters of Trump who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 “were fueled by Trump’s lies and the lies of his surrogates, lies that the 2020 election was stolen.”

“Those same lies have been spewed by Donald Trump and his surrogates about what happened to me and so many other police officers on Jan. 6, 2021. That day I was brutally assaulted.”

During the attack, Fanone and another officer were attacked by rioters, who struck them with metal pipes and stun guns. Fanone suffered a mild heart attack and drifted in and out of consciousness, and said he heard attackers shouting to “Kill him with his own gun,” The Washington Post reported days after the insurrection.

He resigned from the force 11 months later.