Who Was Ricky Shiffer? FBI Ohio Shooting Suspect

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Ricky Shiffer (Ricky Walter Shiffer) was a 42 year old man from Cincinnati, Ohio. Shifter has reportedly been named as the person who attacked the FBI field office in Cincinnati Ohio on August 8 2022. The attack came after former President Donald Trump and other prominent Republicans used harsh rhetoric against the FBI after the FBI raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property in Florida.

Ricky Shiffer FBI Attack Details

Armed Man Attempted To Breach FBI Cincinnati Office. “According to Ohio State Highway Patrol, it started around 9 a.m. when an armed man attempted to breach FBI Cincinnati’s visitor screening facility. An alarm went off and FBI special agents responded when the man fired a nail gun at law enforcement personnel, sources tell NBC. The man then held up an AR-15-style rifle before fleeing in a vehicle north onto I-71 leading Ohio State Highway Patrol on a pursuit. Police said during the pursuit, the suspect fired shots from his vehicle before getting off the highway, stopping near Smith Road in Clinton County.” [WLWT]

Police: Attacker Had Body Armor, AR-15. “The suspect, who officials said was armed with a rifle and wearing body armor, had been contained in a cornfield off Interstate 71 near Wilmington, according to Clinton County Emergency Management. The suspect appeared to have a gunshot wound to his leg but was mobile, according to a law enforcement source. The suspect was allegedly armed with an AR15-style rifle and also brandished a nail gun during the alleged break-in attempt at the FBI field office in Cincinnati, according to multiple law enforcement sources. Clinton County Emergency Management alerted around 4:30 p.m. that the law enforcement response “has ended.”” [ABC]

Shiffer Killed By Police. “Officers fatally shot the suspect after failing to negotiate with him, Ohio State Police spokesman Lt. Nathan Dennis told reporters. The man raised a gun and officers opened fire, Dennis said. It wasn’t clear if he fired, Dennis said, nor was it clear who fired the fatal shot. The man was pronounced dead at the scene, which Dennis described as a rural area off Interstate 71.” [NBC]

Police: Shiffer Was At January 6 Attack. “The man is believed to have been in Washington in the days leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection and may have been present at the Capitol on the day of the attack, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the matter. The official could not discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The suspect was identified as Ricky Shiffer, 42, according to the law enforcement official. He was not charged with any crimes in connection with the Jan. 6 attack, the official said. Federal investigators are examining whether Shiffer may have had ties to far-right extremist groups, including the Proud Boys, the official said.” [AP]

Report: Shiffer Admitted He Was At January 6 Attack. “In May, a user named Ricky Shiffer replied to a photo of rioters climbing Capitol walls on Jan. 6, claiming he was at the building, according to the New York Times. He also reportedly blamed people who are not Donald Trump supporters on the attack. “I was there,” the message read, according to the Times. “We watched as your goons did that.”” [NY Post]

Report: Shiffer Seen On Facebook Video At Pro-Trump Protest. “The suspect, identified by the officials as Ricky Shiffer, 42, seems to have appeared in a video posted on Facebook on Jan. 5, 2021, showing him attending a pro-Trump rally at Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington the night before the Capitol was stormed. In May, a Twitter user named Ricky Shiffer replied to a photograph of rioters scaling the walls of the Capitol on Jan. 6 with a message that claimed he was present at the building and seemed to place the blame for the attack on people other than supporters of former President Donald J. Trump.” [NY Times]

Report: Shiffer Called For Violence After FBI Went To Mar-a-Lago. “On Truth Social, a social media platform founded by Trump’s media company, Trump Media & Technology Group, Shiffer appeared to have posted a message detailing his failed attempt to gain entry to the FBI building. “Well, I thought I had a way through bullet proof glass, and I didn’t. 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,” the account @RickyWShifferJr wrote at 9:29 a.m. ET, shortly after police allege the shooting occured. Shiffer posted to Truth Social multiple times in the days after the FBI searched Trump’s residence about wanting to engage in violence. One post called for people to arm themselves and be ready for “combat.”” [NBC]

Account With Shiffer’s Name Called To “Kill” FBI. “Two days before Shiffer embarked on the failed breach, an account under the same name on Truth Social foreshadowed the attack, calling for followers to “kill the F.B.I. on sight” in the wake of the Trump raid. In his bio on TruthSocial, Shiffer identified himself as an electrician based in Columbus, Ohio, who had multiple social media firms lock his account. “People, this is it,” the account posted. “I hope a call to arms comes from someone better qualified, but if not, this is your call to arms from me. Leave work tomorrow as soon as the gun shop/Army-Navy store/pawn shop opens, get whatever you need to be ready for combat. We must not tolerate this one.”” [Daily Beast]

Shiffer Account Praised Right-Wing Proud Boys. “In a separate reply that day, the user referred approvingly to the Proud Boys, an extremist right-wing group, several of whose leaders face charges in the Capitol riot, in response to a comment about the Supreme Court. “Oh, the packing. The packing could be here. 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. LEXINGTON,” the user wrote.” [Washington Post]

Report: Ricky Shiffer Truth Social Account Scrubbed After Attack. “The suspect may have also had an account on Truth Social. “Looks like Truth Social just deleted the account suspected to be that of the man who attacked the FBI office in Cincinnati,” USA Today correspondent Will Carless reported. “If this is Shiffer’s Truth Social account, he posted two days ago about killing federal agents, and posted 8 hours ago about attacking the FBI,” Carless reported.” [Raw Story]

Shiffer Reportedly Shared Tweets With Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene

Shiffer Allegedly Had Account On Trump’s “Truth Social” Network.

Background On Mar-a-Lago Raid

FBI Searched Mar-a-Lago For Classified Documents Taken By Trump. “Former president Donald Trump said Monday that the FBI had raided his Mar-a-Lago Club and searched his safe — activity related to an investigation into the potential mishandling of classified documents, according to two people familiar with the probe. One of the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss its details, said agents were conducting a court-authorized search as part of a long-running investigation of whether documents — some of them top-secret — were taken to the former president’s private golf club and residence instead of sent to the National Archives when Trump left office. That could be a violation of the Presidential Records Act, which requires the preservation of memos, letters, notes, emails, faxes and other written communications related to a president’s official duties.” [Washington Post]

Republicans Compared FBI Action To “Gestapo.” “Lawmakers throughout the party continued to cast the search at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property, without evidence, as the act of a tyrannical regime, using terms such as “dictatorship” and “banana republic.” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla), the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said the federal government has gone the way of “the Gestapo.” The New York Young Republican Club issued a statement calling for the arrest of anyone involved in the search or other alleged persecutions, suggesting the suspension of normal legal processes if needed “to secure our Republic from the insidious monsters that have wrenched it from the American People’s control.”” [Washington Post]