Enrique Tarrio, the former National Chairman of the Proud Boys, stands outside of the Hyatt Regency where the Conservative Political Action Conference was being held on February 27, 2021 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images.)
A D.C. police lieutenant gave Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio — now convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in the attack on the U.S. Capitol — a heads up about his impending arrest for torching a church’s Black Lives Matter sign, prosecutors said on Friday.
Metropolitan Police Department lieutenant Shane Lamond, a 47-year-old from Stafford, Va., was arrested on a three-count indictment accusing him of obstructing justice and two counts of lying about it to authorities.
Before his prosecution in connection with the Jan. 6th attack, Tarrio landed into legal hot water for burning a Black Lives Matter sign that was hanging from an historic church on Dec. 12, 2020. He later received a five-month sentence for those acts and for illegally bringing two high-capacity firearm magazines within city limits.
As that earlier investigation unfolded, prosecutors say, Lamond gave Tarrio inside information about what police were hearing on Dec. 18.
“Hey brother, did you call in an anonymous tip to MPD claiming responsibility for the banner burning?” Lamond allegedly asked him.
“I did more than that,” Tarrio is quoted replying. “It’s on my social media.”
Authorities say the two communicated via Telegram, using the highest level of encryption available to them.
“I gotcha,” Lamond continued, according to the indictment. “Someone called in an anonymous tip saying that you claimed responsibility for it.”
On Jan. 4, 2021, Tarrio learned about his impending arrest from Lamond then told an unidentified person: “Warrant was just signed,” before that information had become public, prosecutors say.
If convicted of all charges, Lamond faces a maximum of 40 years in prison.
This is a developing story.
Read the indictment here.
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