Philly-area brothers charged with attacking New York Times photographer during Jan. 6 Capitol riot
Philip Walker, 52, of Upper Chichester, and David Walker, 49, of Delran, N.J., were arrested by FBI agent Thursday, authorities said.
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Two brothers from the Philadelphia suburbs have been charged with attacking a New York Times photographer, shoving her to the floor, and stealing her cameras during the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol.
Federal agents arrested Philip Walker, 52, of Upper Chichester, and David Walker, 49, of Delran, Burlington County, at their homes Thursday — more than three years after the attack. Both face federal felony counts including robbery, assault and destruction of property, the most serious of which threaten to send them to prison for up to 15 years.
It was not clear from court dockets whether they had retained attorneys.
But in a Jan. 14, 2021, FBI interview, Philip Walker admitted he had breached the Capitol building on Jan. 6 and had been involved in a physical confrontation, according to court filings.
He told investigators at the time that he believed the person he’d scuffled with was a member of antifa and that he’d taken the person’s camera and later threw it in “a body of water” on his way home to Pennsylvania.
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Though neither the victim nor the news organization she worked for was identified in court papers supporting the Walkers’ arrests, the photographer in question — Erin Schaff — wrote about her assault in the Capitol Rotunda that day just hours after it occurred.
She said her assailants became enraged after they saw her press pass and realized she worked for the Times.
“They threw me to the floor, trying to take my cameras,” she wrote. “I started screaming for help as loudly as I could. No one came. People just watched. At this point, I thought I could be killed, and no one would stop them.”
Schaff later said that she retreated to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s suite, which had been overrun by intruders, and that she was later mistaken by police for one of the rioters because her assailants had also stolen her press badge.
Prosecutors did not explain Thursday why it took more than three years after Philip Walker’s admission to charge him and his brother with the assault or their participation in the riot, which caused more than $3 million in damage, left scores of officers injured, and threatened the peaceful transfer of presidential power.
Court records reveal investigators first received tips that Philip Walker had been inside the Capitol that day as early as Jan. 7 of that year.
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Agents subsequently reviewed his cell-phone location data, security camera video, and footage posted to social media that they say showed both men — dressed in surgical masks, dark hoodies, and jackets — shoving Schaff to the floor of the East Rotunda Stairs.
They grabbed her camera, took off running, and when she attempted to follow them to retrieve her equipment, David Walker shoved her again, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest.
The document says he again engaged in a physical altercation with Schaff before making his way back outside the building but did not specify the details of that encounter.
Agents later interviewed one of the Walkers’ former employers and an unidentified witness who said they had spoken to David Walker after he returned home from Washington on Jan. 6.
“He was stressed and concerned about being arrested,” the witness told agents, according to the arrest affidavit.
Since 2021, the Justice Department has charged more than 1,500 people — including more than 100 Pennsylvania residents and 42 from New Jersey — with playing a role in attack.
Their ranks include Alan Byerly, a Berks County man who was sentenced to three years in prison in 2022 for attacking an Associated Press photographer.
A spokesperson for the Times said in a statement Thursday that the news organization was grateful to authorities “for their persistence in pursuing justice in this case.”
“Independent, fact-based journalism is a cornerstone of democracy and attacks against reporters should be a grave concern to anyone who cares about an informed citizenry,” it read.