Account with name of Ohio standoff suspect posted on Trump social media platform, calling for violence against FBI
(CNN)A social media account bearing the name of Ricky Shiffer, the suspect in the Ohio standoff with the FBI, made a post on the social media platform founded by Donald Trump, referencing an attempt to storm an FBI office and encouraging others online to prepare for a revolutionary-type war.
The post about the FBI office attack was made minutes after the Ohio State Highway Patrol said the incident at the FBI office in Cincinnati began, shortly after 9:15 a.m.
“Well, I thought I had a way through bullet proof glass, and I didn’t,” the user posted at 9:29 a.m. Thursday on Truth Social, Trump’s social media site. “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 while.”
It’s unclear whether the user was attempting to write more, as the post stops after “while.” A spokesperson for the Ohio State Highway Patrol said that at 9:37 a.m. authorities located and began pursuing the suspect’s vehicle.
Authorities have not yet confirmed that the account belongs to the suspect. However, a law enforcement source told CNN that an image on the account matched a government ID photo of the suspect.
The FBI declined to comment on the account and its postings, citing their ongoing investigation.
On the Truth Social account, the user claimed they was present in Washington on January 6, but did not say whether they entered the Capitol. The user’s push for violence did not start or stop with the FBI’s recent actions. The poster constantly referenced his belief that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.
The user communicated to others with the account — which has only been active in the last few weeks — with increasingly politically violent and revolution-minded thoughts.
The FBI’s search warrant execution at Trump’s Florida home was the start of the user’s intense fixation on responding with violence towards the agency over the past several days.
“People, this is it,” the user wrote Monday, shortly after news broke of the search warrant. “I hope a call to arms comes from someone better qualified, but if not, this is your call to arms from me.”
In that post, the user encouraged people to go to gun and pawn shops to “get whatever you need to be ready for combat.”
“We must not tolerate this one,” the user wrote.
When another user responded, saying that they would be sending his photo and information onto the FBI, the user responded saying, “Bring them on.”
It’s unclear whether the information was forwarded to the FBI.
“Evil already won, now we need to fight a civil war to take back the country,” the user later wrote Monday.
On Tuesday, the day after the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, the poster wrote that people were heading to gather in Palm Beach and that if the FBI broke up the group, “kill them.”
When another user responded to his post, saying no one should resort to violence, the user responded with, “Why not?”
The user of the Ricky Shiffer account, as they did frequently on the social media site, pushed a message of political violence, saying, “when tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty.”
“Don’t forget how Americans handle tyrants,” the user wrote to another user Wednesday, commenting on the same article.
“They rig elections, and get away with it,” the user wrote Tuesday.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/11/us/ricky-shiffer-purported-social-media-posts/index.html
