Federal authorities said they were trying to determine whether he had taken part in the January 6, 2021, breach of the US Capitol after he tweeted that “I was there” in response to a photo showing rioters climbing the walls of the building. the law enforcement official said.
The FBI was also looking into whether Shiffer appeared in a Facebook video of a pro-Trump rally on the evening of Jan. 5, 2021, at the Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House, the official said.
In a written statement, the FBI said it had previously received information about Shiffer, but that it “did not contain a specific and credible threat.” The agency added that multiple field offices had attempted to locate and interview Shiffer, but were unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, authorities are continuing to investigate a possible motive for the shooting, in addition to Shiffer’s possible ties to extremist groups, a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation said. Shiffer’s name is used on several social media platforms by an individual who spoke of being at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and requesting a “call to arms” after the FBI executed a search warrant at former President Donald Trump’s property in Florida on Monday. .
On Truth Social, a site created by Trump, an account under Shiffer’s name published a post after the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago telling others to “get everything you need to be ready for fight”. At 9:30 a.m. Thursday, he wrote another post that he appeared to be writing after trying to break into the FBI building.
“Well, I thought I had a way through bulletproof glass and I didn’t,” he wrote. “If you don’t hear from me, it’s true that I tried to attack the FBI, and that means either they took me off the Internet, the FBI got me, or they sent in the regular cops.”
Shiffer was an Iraq War veteran who had served in the Navy aboard the USS Columbia, where he oversaw electronic equipment related to weapons such as missiles and torpedoes, in a role that required one of the highest security classifications in the U.S. government. a spokesman said Friday. .
He enlisted in the Navy in June 1998, shortly after graduating from a high school in Pennsylvania, authorities said. He underwent 10 months of training as a fire control technician before being assigned to Colombia, where his duties included monitoring weapons systems and analyzing data to help launch strikes.
“I was in submarines for 5 years and in the Army National Guard for 3 years. You can call me FT2 Shiffer or Spec. Shiffer (or the joke could be FT2 Sh*thead, or something,” a Truth Social account using Shiffer’s name posted earlier this year.
Authorities declined to comment on whether Shiffer was connected to the Truth Social account as well as a similar Twitter profile, but both displayed his name, photo and general location and were active before the shooting.
Submarines are inherently sensitive tasks, and Shiffer’s work was particularly so. Sailors in Shiffer’s position should have the right to have classified top secret/sensitive information cleared, said Cullen James, a Navy personnel spokesman. Deep cleaning is reserved for some of the most secretive tasks related to national security in the US government.
The Navy Record did not list any individual awards for Shiffer. He left the service in 2003 as a non-commissioned officer.
Shiffer enlisted as an infantryman in 2008 in the Florida Army National Guard, said Catalina Carrasco, a spokeswoman for the National Guard Bureau. He served a yearlong combat deployment to Iraq in 2010 and left the service shortly after returning home. He was honorably discharged in 2011.
Since then, Shiffer had moved around a lot, according to public records, until he moved to Columbus, Ohio, where he worked as a commercial electrician. In Tampa, he lived in several rundown apartment buildings, all near the city’s James A. Haley Veterans Hospital.
Shiffer’s social media accounts complain about the state of America and that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, a driving force among right-wing conspirators since Trump incited a mob to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6. He appeared desperate that the system might not change to his satisfaction and that violence seemed to be the only alternative.
“No, there won’t be a red wave, just like there wasn’t in 2020, no one has stopped the manipulation of the elections,” one post said. “I don’t expect to save America,” said another post. “I expect to die trying.”
Experts on domestic extremism and terrorism have warned that violent rhetoric from Republican lawmakers, pro-Trump media figures and anti-government agitators could fuel attacks such as attempts to break into the FBI office.
“We are likely to see continued acts of violence and attacks,” Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a New York University professor who studies authoritarianism and political violence, told the Washington Post.
“There is a huge universe of right-wing media and messaging, from Fox News to Breitbart to former President Trump to Republican lawmakers like Marjorie Taylor Greene,” said Ben-Ghiat, “that peddles conspiracy theories and seeks to keep people in a state of agitation and fear is enough to make some people resort to violence.”
Shiffer was the oldest of four siblings who grew up on a farm in Perry County, Pa., near the Susquehanna River. His father was a farmer and diesel mechanic and his mother employee of an insurance company, said a family member who did not want to give his name because of the sensitivity of the case.
The relative remembered Schiffer as a “very intelligent but quiet person.”
“He had quite a memory of it,” the family member said. “He was full of facts and information when he talked about something. He knew a lot about farm equipment.”
The Shiffers had a small family farm with just a few animals—pigs and a cow—that they occasionally slaughtered and offered as meat for family members. Shiffer left the farm shortly after graduating high school to enlist in the Navy, the family member said. He graduated from West Perry High School in 1998, the school confirmed.
“He was quiet, maybe a little awkward, but you could tell he was a very bright kid. He had some brain power,” the relative said.
At about 9:15 a.m. Thursday, Shiffer attempted to break into the visitor screening facility at the field office, located in suburban Cincinnati, authorities said. An alarm went off and armed agents responded, causing Shiffer to flee in his car and onto Interstate 71.
About 20 minutes later, a state trooper found Shiffer’s car in a rest area about 20 miles north, but when officers tried to pull him over, he drove off and fired a “suspected gunshot,” the trooper said. highway patrol in its statement Friday morning. He continued north before stopping on a rural road in Chester Township, about 45 miles north of Cincinnati.
He got out of the car at about 9:53 a.m. and engaged police in a shootout before taking cover behind the car, starting a standoff that would last until officers shot him at about 3:42 p.m., police said. After negotiations broke down, police tried to use “less lethal tactics” to arrest Shiffer, but he “raised a firearm” and officers shot him, they said.
In a statement Thursday evening, the FBI’s Cincinnati field office called the incident an “agent-involved shooting.” State police said they are investigating the incident along with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the FBI.
“The FBI takes seriously all shooting incidents involving our agents or members of the task force,” the statement said. “In accordance with FBI policy, the shooting incident is under investigation by the FBI’s Division of Investigation.
At the three-story apartment building in Columbus, Ohio, where Shiffer last lived, residents returned home Thursday night to find officers had locked down their block. On Friday, many learned why. Some said they did not recognize Shiffer’s name or face.
“It’s scary that he was there,” said neighbor Erin Bitzer.
Alice Crites, Drew Harwell, Spencer S. Hsu and Razzan Nakhlawi in Washington, Grant Segall in Columbus, Ohio and Jared Leone in Tampa contributed to this report.
