Two brothers were arrested Thursday on charges that they assaulted a New York Times photographer inside the U.S. Capitol during a mob's attack on the building more than three years ago.
David Walker, 49, of Delran New Jersey, and Philip Walker, 52, of Upper Chichester, Pennsylvania, also are charged with stealing a camera from the photographer during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.
Philip Walker told investigators that he tossed a camera into a body of water on his way home from Washington, D.C., according to an FBI agent's affidavit.
Court records don't name the photographer or identify her employer, but New York Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha confirmed that the affidavit refers to staff photographer Erin Schaff, who wrote about her experience at the Capitol.
“We are grateful to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the FBI for their persistence in pursuing justice in this case," Rhodes Ha said in a statement. "Independent, fact-based journalism is a cornerstone of democracy and attacks against reporters should be a grave concern to anyone who cares about an informed citizenry."
Philip Walker told the FBI that he believed the photographer was a member of “antifa,” a term for anti-fascist activists who often clash with far-right extremists at political protests.
A livestream video posted on social media showed the photographer standing at the top of the East Rotunda Stairs just before the Walkers assaulted her and then ran down the staircase.
Schaff recalled that two or three men in black surrounded her, demanded to know her employer and became angry when they grabbed her press pass and saw that she worked for The New York Times.
“They threw me to the floor, trying to take my cameras,” she wrote. “I started screaming for help as loudly as I could. No one came. People just watched. At this point, I thought I could be killed and no one would stop them.”
Schaff said police found her but didn't believe that she was a journalist because her press pass was stolen.
“They drew their guns, pointed them and yelled at me to get down on my hands and knees," she wrote. "As I lay on the ground, two other photojournalists came into the hall and started shouting 'She’s a journalist!'”
Philip Walker was carrying what appeared to be Schaff's photographic equipment as he fled, the FBI said. David Walker pushed the photographer again when she tried to pursue his brother and retrieve her equipment, according to the affidavit.
A magistrate judge ordered David Walker to be released on $50,000 bail after his initial court appearance in New Jersey on Thursday, court records show. An attorney who represented Walker at the hearing didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
The Walkers were arrested on complaints charging them with robbery, assault and other charges.
Other rioters were charged assaulting an Associated Press photographer outside the Capitol during the riot. One of them, Alan Byerly, was sentenced in October 2022 to nearly three years in prison.
Nearly 1,500 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Approximately 140 police officers were injured in the attack.
FILE - Insurrectionists loyal to President Donald Trump breach the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021. Inside Washington’s federal courthouse, there's no denying the reality of Jan. 6, 2021. Day after day, judges and jurors silently absorb chilling sights and sounds from television screens — of rioters beating police, shattering windows and hunting for lawmakers. Hundreds of cases have systematically documented the weapons wielded, crimes committed, lives altered by physical and emotional damage. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
FILE - Media and protesters outside E. Barrett Prettyman US Federal Courthouse, Aug. 2, 2023, in Washington. Inside Washington’s federal courthouse, there's no denying the reality of Jan. 6, 2021. Day after day, judges and jurors silently absorb chilling sights and sounds from television screens — of rioters beating police, shattering windows and hunting for lawmakers. Hundreds of cases have systematically documented the weapons wielded, crimes committed, lives altered by physical and emotional damage. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
A key employee who labeled a doomed experimental submersible unsafe prior to its last, fatal voyage testified Tuesday that he frequently clashed with the company’s co-founder and felt the company was committed only to making money.
David Lochridge, OceanGate’s former operations director, is one of the most anticipated witnesses to appear before a commission trying to determine what caused the Titan to implode en route to the wreckage of the Titanic last year, killing all five on board. His testimony echoed that of other former employees Monday, one of whom described OceanGate head Stockton Rush as volatile and difficult to work with.
“The whole idea behind the company was to make money,” Lochridge said. “There was very little in the way of science.”
Rush was among the five people who died in the implosion. OceanGate owned the Titan and brought it on several dives to the Titanic going back to 2021.
Lochridge's testimony began a day after other witnesses painted a picture of a troubled company that was impatient to get its unconventionally designed craft into the water. The accident set off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration.
Lochridge joined the company in the mid-2010s as a veteran engineer and submersible pilot and said he quickly came to feel he was being used to lend the company scientific credibility. He said he felt the company was selling him as part of the project “for people to come up and pay money,” and that did not sit well with him.
“I was, I felt, a show pony,” he said. “I was made by the company to stand up there and do talks. It was difficult. I had to go up and do presentations. All of it.”
Lochridge referenced a 2018 report in which he raised safety issues about OceanGate operations. He said with all of the safety issues he saw “there was no way I was signing off on this.”
Asked whether he had confidence in the way the Titan was being built, he said: “No confidence whatsoever.”
Employee turnover was very high at the time, said Lochridge, and leadership dismissed his concerns because they were more focused on “bad engineering decisions” and a desire to get to the Titanic as quickly as possible and start making money. He eventually was fired after raising the safety concerns, he said.
“I didn’t want to lose my job. I wanted to do the Titanic. But to dive it safely. It was on my bucket list, too,” he said.
OceanGate, based in Washington state, suspended its operations after the implosion.
OceanGate's former engineering director, Tony Nissen, kicked off Monday's testimony, telling investigators he felt pressured to get the vessel ready to dive and refused to pilot it for a journey several years before Titan's last trip. Nissen worked on a prototype hull that predated the Titanic expeditions.
“‘I’m not getting in it,’” Nissen said he told Rush.
When asked if there was pressure to get Titan into the water, Nissen responded, “100%.”
But asked if he felt that the pressure compromised safety decisions and testing, Nissen paused, then replied, “No. And that’s a difficult question to answer, because given infinite time and infinite budget, you could do infinite testing.”
OceanGate's former finance and human resources director, Bonnie Carl, testified Monday that Lochridge had characterized the Titan as “unsafe.”
Coast Guard officials noted at the start of the hearing that the submersible had not been independently reviewed, as is standard practice. That and Titan's unusual design subjected it to scrutiny in the undersea exploration community.
During the submersible's final dive on June 18, 2023, the crew lost contact after an exchange of texts about the Titan's depth and weight as it descended. The support ship Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if the Titan could still see the ship on its onboard display.
One of the last messages from Titan’s crew to Polar Prince before the submersible imploded stated, “all good here,” according to a visual re-creation presented earlier in the hearing.
When the submersible was reported overdue, rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to an area about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Wreckage of the Titan was subsequently found on the ocean floor about 330 yards (300 meters) off the bow of the Titanic, Coast Guard officials said.
Scheduled to appear later in the hearing are OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Sohnlein and former scientific director, Steven Ross, according to a list compiled by the Coast Guard. Numerous guard officials, scientists, and government and industry officials are also expected to testify. The U.S. Coast Guard subpoenaed witnesses who were not government employees, said Coast Guard spokesperson Melissa Leake.
Among those not on the hearing witness list is Rush’s widow, Wendy Rush, the company’s communications director. Asked about her absence, Leake said the Coast Guard does not comment on the reasons for not calling specific individuals to a particular hearing during ongoing investigations. She said it’s common for a Marine Board of Investigation to “hold multiple hearing sessions or conduct additional witness depositions for complex cases.”
OceanGate has no full-time employees at this time but will be represented by an attorney during the hearing, the company said in a statement. The company said it has been fully cooperating with the Coast Guard and NTSB investigations since they began.
The time frame for the investigation was initially a year, but the inquiry has taken longer. The ongoing Marine Board of Investigation is the highest level of marine casualty investigation conducted by the Coast Guard. When the hearing concludes, recommendations will be submitted to the Coast Guard’s commandant. The National Transportation Safety Board is also conducting an investigation.
Coast Guard's Thomas Whalen, left, speaks with Nicole Emmons, right, during a break for the Titan marine board formal hearing inside the Charleston County Council Chambers, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in North Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Mic Smith)
Coast Guard's Thomas Whalen speaks with another Coast Guard member during a break for the Titan marine board formal hearing inside the Charleston County Council Chambers, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in North Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Mic Smith)
Jason Neubauer, board chairman, of the investigative board for the Titan marine board formal hearing pauses for a moment of silence inside the Charleston County Council Chambers Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in North Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Mic Smith)
Coast Guard members of the investigative board for the Titan marine board formal hearing pause for a moment of silence inside the Charleston County Council Chambers Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in North Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Mic Smith)
Coast Guard members of the investigative board for the Titan marine board formal hearing take an oath inside the Charleston County Council Chambers Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in North Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Mic Smith)
A key employee who called the Titan unsafe will testify before the Coast Guard
FILE - This undated image provided by OceanGate Expeditions in June 2021 shows the company's Titan submersible. (OceanGate Expeditions via AP, File)
A key employee who called the Titan unsafe will testify before the Coast Guard
