Ohio FBI shooting - latest: ‘Violent extremist’ Ricky Shiffer investigated for months after Jan 6
Standoff with police ended with suspect being shot
Cincinnati shooting suspect Ricky Shiffer was shot dead by police on the side of an interstate highway hours after he attempted to breach a visitor’s entrance at an FBI field office in the city.
The 42-year-old, of Columbus, Ohio, fled the scene of the attempted attack on Thursday morning before a standoff and shootout took place hours later. The FBI confirmed his death at 3.45pm following an exchange of gunfire.
Officials are investigating Shiffer’s ties to the US Capitol riot and right wing extremism as he appears to have claimed that he was present in Washington on 6 January on Truth Social, a pro-Trump social media site.
Federal agents were already looking into Shiffer’s ties to the Capitol attack before the FBI standoff, the New York Times reports.
Shiffer also appeared to support Donald Trump’s unfounded claims of a stolen election in 2020 and responded to social media posts by pro-Trump figures such as congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and Donald Trump Jr.
His social media posts made reference to the FBI’s search at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida on Monday.
Who is Ricky Shiffer, the Trump-supporting Ohio gunman who attacked the FBI?
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FBI director Christopher Wray makes first public response to search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home
Ricky Shiffer’s military record revealed
Ricky Shiffer, the Ohio man who died in an armed standoff with police on Thursday after attacking an FBI field office, was a military veteran.
The 42-year-old served in the Navy on a nuclear submarine and later in the National Guard, Military.com reports.
Shiffer was in the Navy between 1998 and 2003, serving as a fire control technician and operating onboard the USS Columbia in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, earning no awards or decorations.
He followed his time on the sub with three years in the Florida National Guard as an infantryman, deploying to Iraq then being honourably discharged in 2011, according to records from the military branch.
Breaking news: What we know about Ricky Shiffer’s military experience
Ricky Shiffer, the Ohio man who died in an armed standoff with police on Thursday after attacking an FBI field office in Cincinnati, was a military veteran.
The 42-year-old served in the Navy on a nuclear submarine and later in the National Guard, Military.com reports.
Shiffer was in the Navy between 1998 and 2003, serving as a fire control technician and operating onboard the nuclear-powered USS Columbia in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, earning no awards or decorations. The position meant he was responsible for the systems used to maintain and fire the craft’s advanced weapons.
More details on the breaking news story here.
Ricky Shiffer: Ohio gunman who attacked FBI served in Navy and fought in Iraq
FBI on alert as criticism intensifies over Mar-a-Lago search
FBI officials have warned of a rise in threats against federal agents since the execution of a search warrant on Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property on Tuesday.
The search, which a law enforcement official suggested to The Washington Post was in connection with an investigation into classified nuclear documents allegedly kept at Mar-a-Lago by Mr Trump, came days before the FBI’s office was attacked in Cincinnati.
Mr Trump’s supporters have heavily criticised the FBI’s search, accusing the bureau and the Justice Department of using the legal system as a political weapon. That is despite the reports of declassified nuclear documents being seized at Mar-a-Lago however.
On Wednesday, FBI personnel were warned to avoid protesters and to avoid showing their security keys in public as a result of an increase in threats made against the bureau by far right social media accounts. The follwowing day, suspect Ricky Shiffer attempted to breach a FBI building.
Suspect also posted on Rumble about Proud Boys, report says
Social media posts under the name Ricky Shiffer suggest the suspect in Thursday’s attack in Cincinnati called on others to “Save ammunition” and “Get in touch with the Proud Boys”, analysis from a think tank shows.
The Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank that monitors extremism and online hate speech, shared with ABC News on Friday its analysis of posts believed to be made by Shiffer.
As well as content on Twitter and Donald Trump’s own platform Truth Social, Shiffer is believed to have posted on the video streaming website Rumble, the report said.
Officials have been reported as saying that Shiffer’s connections to far right groups are under investigation and that he has been classified a “suspected domestic violent extremist”. That remains to be confirmed.
Tweets show suspect’s support for Proud Boys, reports say
Analysis of the FBI attack suspect’s social media history by Huffington Post suggests he also tweeted about support for the Proud Boys, the far right militia group connected to January 6.
Suspect called for “1775” as “solution” in reply to Marjorie Taylor Greene
Social media accounts thought to belong to FBI shooting suspect Ricky Shiffer have come under scrutiny since his death on Thursday following a shoot-out with officers and an attempted attack on the bureau’s office in Cincinnati.
One tweet seen by NBC News suggested that in May, Shiffer responded to a tweet by pro-Trump congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene by referencing the need for a repeat of “1775” – in apparent reference to the beginning of the American Revolutionary War.
Shiffer reportedly wrote: “Congresswoman Greene, they got away with fixing elections in plain sight. It’s over. The next step is the one we used in 1775.”
Ms Greene had tweeted: “I know they are trying 1984, but I’m feeling 2016 vibes”. Those comments were in apparent reference to false claims made by Donald Trump that Democrats stole the 2020 US election.
Family members remember Ricky Shiffer as “very intelligent but quiet person.
Family members are speaking out about Ricky Shiffer, the Ohio man shot by law enforcement after attacking an FBI post on Thursday.
Shiffer grew up on a small family farm in Perry County, Pennsylvania, near the Susquehanna River, the oldest of four siblings, The Washington Post reports.
An unnamed family member told the Post that Shiffer was a “very intelligent but quiet person.”
“He had quite a memory on him,” they said. “It was full of facts and information when he would talk about something. He knew a lot about farm equipment.”
“He was quiet, maybe a little awkward, but you could tell he was a very smart kid. He had some brainpower,” the family member added.
Old acquaintances say Ricky Shiffer had an ‘anger issue’ and ‘got picked up by the wrong crowd'
Now that officials have identified Ricky Shiffer of Ohio as the man who attacked a Cincinnati FBI office on Thursday, those who knew the gunman, who was killed by police, are starting to share their recollections.
Ian McConnell was Shiffer’s neighbour in the Greystone Apartments complex in Columbus, Ohio, where Shiffer lived between 2017 and 2020.
Shiffer was slightly odd but didn’t raise any alarm bells, Mr McConnell told the Cincinnati Enquirer.
“We knew he was a bit off,” McConnell said. “He had a little bit of an anger issue about his car, but who doesn’t?”
The former neighbour said he was shocked to learn what happened to Shiffer, who moved away from Columbus with stated aspirations to live out West.
“It was a shock to us he wound up in Cincinnati,” Mr McConnell said. “I’m afraid this is coming two years too late and Ricky got picked up by the wrong crowd.”
Ohio gunman had ‘lead foot’ and minor arrests on record
More details have begun to trickle in about Ricky Shiffer, the Ohio man who tried to shoot up an FBI office in Cincinnati on Thursday before being killed by police after a daylong police standoff.
The FBI attack wasn’t Shiffer’s first encounter with law enforcement.
In 2004, he got a speeding ticket in Minnesota, after driving 50 mph in a 30 mph zone in his red Ford Mustage, NBC News reports.
“I have a lead foot,” he reportedly told officers.
That’s certainly true. Records show he got speeding tickets in Ohio, Hawaii, and Florida.
A year before the Minnesota incident, however, Shiffer had his most serious brush with police.
In July of 2003, he was arrested in Moorhead, Minnesota, and pleaded guilty to “obstructing legal process.”
Fury at FBI continues building on Truth Social
Anger at the FBI continues to build on Truth Social, the social media platform founded by Donald Trump.
As of Friday afternoon, the top hashtags on the site were #EndTheFBI, #DefundTheFBI and #FBIcorruption, NBC News reports.
Ricky Shiffer was among the angry Truth Social users attacking the FBI, after the agency searched the former president’s home in Mar-a-Lago.
A post on Truth Social from an account appearing to belong to Shiffer seemed to confess to the attack.
“If you don’t hear from me, it is true I tried attacking the FBI, and it’ll mean either I was taken off the internet, the FBI got me, or they sent the regular cops,” the update reads.
According to an analysis from The Washington Post, Shiffer appeared to be one of Truth Social’s most prolific posters, sending out 374 messages in the week before the FBI shooting, most of them pro-Trump conspiracy theories.
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