A Washington, D.C. police officer was charged today (May 19) for his role in helping the Proud Boys in late 2020 and early 2021. Shane Lamond faces one count of obstruction of justice and three counts of making false statements for his actions.
It all dates back to December 2020 when the Proud Boys burned a Black Lives Matter flag in Washington, D.C. Lamond didn’t want to see those in attendance face consequences, so he communicated with leader Enrique Tarrio — who was arrested for the crime on Jan. 4, 2021 — about what was happening with the police. According to NBC News, he allegedly obstructed the Metropolitan Police Department’s investigation into the burning and assured Tarrio that he told another unit within the MPD that the Proud Boys weren’t racist.
“I told them you are made up [of] a lot of Latinos and Blacks so [it’s] not a racist thing. If anything, I said it’s political, but then I drew attention to the Trump and American flags that were taken by Antifa and set on fire,” Lamond wrote in a message outlined in the indictment. “I said all those would have to be classified as hate crimes too.”
The grand jury indictment claimed that Tarrio and Lamond spoke to each other “at least 500 times” between July 2019 and January 2021 “using cloud-based messaging services, including Google Voice, Apple iMessages, and Telegram.” At least 145 of those messages were sent with Telegram’s disappearing chat feature.
Lamond reportedly continued communicating with Tarrio after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. On Jan. 8, the cop said he hoped that none of the group members would be arrested. “Of course, I can’t say it officially, but personally, I support you all and don’t want to see your group’s name or reputation dragged through the mud,” he said in his message.
Earlier this month, Tarrio and three other Proud Boys leaders were convicted of seditious conspiracy for their role in Jan. 6, the most serious crime to come out of the insurrection thus far. Lamond, who was known to have been in contact with Tarrio prior to that fateful day, was meant to be their saving witness until prosecutors uncovered how deep their relationship actually was. Check out the MPD’s arrest announcement below.