A Pennsylvania woman accused of filming an attack on a New York Times photojournalist inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and screaming at the assailants to spray the photographer with mace was arrested Monday in Mechanicsburg.
Sandra S. Weyer, also known as Sandy Pomeroy Weyer, recorded several men assaulting the photographer, who can be heard screaming in the video, according to an FBI affidavit, which did not name the victim. As the photographer got up, approached her assailants and tried to retrieve her backpack, Weyer allegedly yelled, “Fucking traitor, get the fuck out!” and “Get her out! Mace her!”
The assault took place on a staircase near the entrance to the Capitol Rotunda. It was also caught on surveillance video, the FBI said.
Weyer allegedly posted multiple times on Facebook about the storming of the Capitol, including livestreams, which were removed.
One comment attributed to Weyer in an exchange on a photo of herself and several others outside the Capitol said: “I seen no riots. I saw Patriots sick of being lied to and the election being stolen from us! I saw no violence from the Patriots!” according to the affidavit.
“I did what needed to be done! I’m happy,” she allegedly said to another person.
The photographer told authorities she was approached by four or five men, one of whom asked her, “Who do you shoot for?” When she didn’t reply, one of them grabbed her press credentials, the affidavit said.
“Once the men saw the credentials were from the New York Times, the men become agitated and angry,” according to the document. The men then pushed her to the ground and took her camera. She told the FBI she tried to fight them off and screamed for help, then chased after them to try to retrieve her camera.
Another video shows Weyer among a crowd chanting “Let us in!” and “Break that door!” outside the Capitol, the FBI alleged.
She was charged with multiple counts, including obstruction of an official proceeding, disorderly and disruptive conduct and violent entry.
She appears to be an active supporter of Doug Mastriano, a Republican state senator from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, who was at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and whose campaign spent thousands of dollars to charter buses to ferry supporters to D.C. for a Donald Trump rally that led to the attack on Congress.
According to a New Yorker profile about the senator last month, Weyer rode one of those buses to the event. She’s been pictured on multiple occasions at events in support of Mastriano, including with Samuel Lazar, a man on the FBI’s Capitol riot wanted list who was filmed spraying mace toward police officers on Jan. 6.
Mastriano condemned Lazar’s actions last month after HuffPost reported on multiple images of the senator posing with the extremist, whom Mastriano claims he had not vetted.
Weyer is scheduled to appear in court via video link on Thursday before a U.S. magistrate judge.