Truth Social Posts Linked to Gunman at FBI Office

The man fatally shot by police in Ohio Thursday after trying to breach the FBI's Cincinnati field office may have taken part in the Capitol attack, according to law enforcement sources. The sources, who identified the suspect to the AP and other outlets as 42-year-old Ricky Shiffer, say he may have had links to extremist groups that took part in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, including the Proud Boys. A Twitter user named Ricky Shiffer commented on a photo of Capitol rioters in May, saying he was present at the building, the New York Times reports. In another post, the user wrote, "Save ammunition, get in touch with the Proud Boys and learn how they did it in the Revolutionary War, because submitting to tyranny while lawfully protesting was never the American way."

It's not clear whether Shiffer entered the Capitol on Jan. 6. Nobody with that name was charged in connection with the attack. Law enforcement sources told NBC that the man, armed with an AR-15-style rifle, tried to breach the visitor screening facility and fired a nail gun at personnel before he fled in a car. A post on Truth Social from an account with Shiffer's name appears to have been made after the attempt to breach the building, the Washington Post reports. "Well, I thought I had a way through bullet proof glass, and I didn’t," the post reads. "If you don’t hear from me, it is true I tried attacking the F.B.I., and it’ll mean either I was taken off the internet, the F.B.I. got me, or they sent the regular cops."

Earlier this week, the same Truth Social poster issued what he called "a call to arms" and encouraged others to "get whatever you need to be ready for combat" after the FBI searched Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, the Post reports. Authorities say there was a sharp increase in threats to FBI offices and agents across the country after the search. The Ohio State Highway Patrol says the suspect was shot at 3:45pm, more than six hours after the attempt to enter the building, when he raised a gun toward officers after a standoff on a rural road. (More FBI stories.)