THREAD: I have obtained previously unreleased footage from two bodycams of a July 7, 2020 incident in which ATF Agent James Burk was arrested at gunpoint and tased by two Columbus, Ohio police officers after a community member called 911 unclear if he was truly law enforcement.
This footage thread is compiled by me synchronizing bodycams of Columbus Officers Joseph Fihe and Kevin Winchell.

Officer Fihe arrived first, and pulled his handgun on ATF Agent Burk when he didn't comply with commands to show ID or "get on the ground."
Officer Winchell arrived and immediately drew on Agent Burk.

"I'm not resisting!" he said while being cuffed. "I've got a medical condition!"

"I'm hyperventilating!"

He begged for officers to check his fed ID as he was cuffed.

"I'm begging you!" he said. "My wife's pregnant!"
With only one one of ATF Agent Burk's wrists handcuffed, Columbus Officer Joseph Fihe pulled out his taser.

"Put your right arm behind your back!"

"I'm gonna, let me breathe!"

Officer Fihe then tased Agent Burk, which enabled them to finish cuffing him and take away his gun.
"You're the one that's in the wrong," Officer Winchell told the handcuffed Agent Burk. They then looked at his ATF badge.

"I'm a fucking federal agent," said Burk.

"You aught to be ashamed of yourself," said Fihe before they took him to the police cruiser.
"I can't breathe!" ATF Agent Burk told the Columbus PD officers as they forced him into their car.

Burk demanded an ambulance but then took it back. He continued yelling once the car doors were closed.
Agent Burk continued to argue from the backseat of the police car as Officer Fihe secured Burk's handgun and put it on the front dash.

Burk asked for his supervisor, Fihe said his supervisor was coming.

"When you get a gun pointed in your face by a cop, you don't get to argue!"
Agent Burk kept yelling from in the car.

"Don't even argue," said Officer Winchell. "Just let him yell."

As other officers arrived, they explained the situation.

"He might even be a real police officer. He's got a badge."
Officer Fihe spoke to the woman who originally called 911 on ATF agent Burk who showed up at her home alone to apparently follow up on a shotgun purchase and demanded entry.

I've listened to her 911 call, and her explanation matches that call.
I've put the full video here, where I sync and cut between the two bodycams to the most relevant angle at any given moment.

Otherwise, this is unedited except one point of dead time I cross-dissolve through.

This is not ATF agent Burk's first run-in with the law. In 2015, he was charged for allegedly being caught on video shoplifting $200 of wine from a Landen, Ohio Kroger store.

wcpo.com/news/local-new…
Agent Burk is now suing the Columbus police for excessive force over the incident.

dispatch.com/story/news/cri…
ATF Agent Burk is suing the Columbus Police for brutality in the case.

These are the photos of his injuries.
They also documented Officer Fihe's injuries, including some hand and knee irritation following the arrest.
Officer Winchell suffered some more serious knee scraping during the arrest, which they also documented.

Both officers were kneeling into the sidewalk at points of their struggle/arrest of Agent Burk.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Ford Fischer

Ford Fischer Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @FordFischer

13 Jan
THREAD: The anti-Trump @ShutDown_DC alliance attempted to hang banners reading "Expel all fascists" with the names of every congressperson who opposed the presidential election certification on the Capitol fence this afternoon.

Police prepped zip-ties and threatened arrest.
After getting three warnings, activists began marching back away from Capitol grounds, with a police line pushing forward toward them.

"1, 2, 3, 4! Slavery, genocide and war! 5, 6, 7, 8, America was never great!" they chanted.

National Guardsmen tailed the officers as backup.
Things got briefly tense as the group arrived at the line leaving Capitol grounds.

Officers pulled back one officer engaging with a protester with a megaphone.

"Where were you?" activists demanded to know, referencing the Capitol insurgency a week ago.
Read 7 tweets
13 Jan
Armed affiliates of the "Southern Patriot Council" militia group rallied in front of the Texas state capitol this afternoon to protest proposed restrictions to the Castile Doctrine.

They say they'd be ok with getting rid of it if the Texas state house wasn't protected with guns.
Eric Braden - who leads the Texas-based militia and prefers to be called "General E" - says DC effectively used the "Castle Doctrine" during the insurgency Wednesday.

He says they used it to kill "five unarmed, innocent Americans."
"This is a nation controlled by Marxism," said militiaman Michael Paris. "Both by the demon-rat party, I will not call them Democrats, they are demon-rats, and the GOP has also joined them."

He says he now actually blames the GOP more for the country "falling."
Read 8 tweets
10 Jan
Activists with @RefuseFascism / @RefuseFascismDC held a press conference to condemn Wednesday's MAGA insurgency this afternoon at Black Lives Matter Plaza in DC.

@JamNoPeanut said it was "unleashed by Donald Trump" who he calls a "wanna-be second president of the confederacy."
"This was a fascist coup attempt," said Revolutionary Communist Party activist @Carl_Dix.

"Fascism is vicious, unrestrained white supremacy, police terror, male supremacy."
"The president and all of his enablers must be prosecuted," said @WilliamHLamarIV, Pastor of the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church which had its BLM banner taken and burned by Proud Boys in December.

"We will not be deterred. We will not be intimidated."
Read 6 tweets
8 Jan
THREAD: I've gotten a few questions about some specific participants in January 6, so I hope to answer them here.

Stop the Steal co-founder Ali Alexander and Infowars' Alex Jones & Owen Shroyer were toward the front of the march to the Capitol, but I didn't see them after that.
"We're coming, swamp creatures!" yelled Alex Jones. This was mins after the Trump speech concluded, as the group walked Penn Ave.

"We're coming for all you commie traitors in congress that stabbed us in the back!" said Shroyer.

Jones called for "non-violent civil disobedience."
President Trump had actually claimed he'd be joining the march to the Capitol down Penn Ave.

As a couple black SUV's went by, the crowd actually mistakenly believed it was the president.

Read 6 tweets
7 Jan
PHOTO THREAD: Police failed to keep Trump supporters back as they stormed the initial perimeter around the Capitol.

In spite of mace and flash grenades, protesters managed to push through and climb the wall west of the building.

Photos by me for @N2Sreports. Pm for licensing.
Trump supporters climbed the East Capitol steps where they were confronted by police, but managed to take an officer's riot shield and push through into the building.
An injured Trump supporter is taken out from the Capitol in a stretcher.
Read 6 tweets
6 Jan
I'm home, and will post my footage of the #CapitolHill riot chronologically as I go through it.

These are some of the scenes I first saw arriving at the Capitol, just as they breached the perimeter.

Fighting largely focused on the first set of steps.
One person fell off the steps (which I didn't manage to capture on video).

Trump supporters accused officers of pushing him off. He was taken away in a stretcher. His condition is unclear to me.
It was shortly after that that Trump supporters began pushing harder, to the point that police retreated up the steps.

In my opinion, this was basically the critical moment that caused everything else tonight to happen.

Police threw some tear gas back as they retreated.
Read 23 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!