a different kind of tip
How an Uber driver's dashcam footage assisted in the arrest of a Capitol rioter
An Uber driver helped the FBI arrest a participant in the Capitol riot by turning in a dashcam recording of a conversation he had with a passenger on Jan. 6, NBC News reports per court records unsealed Tuesday.
On Jan. 6, the Uber driver picked up a rioter, named Jerry Braun, in downtown Washington, D.C. about an hour after the curfew imposed by Mayor Muriel Bowser. The driver and his passenger — who was sporting a visible eye injury — began chatting about the attack while a camera mounted in the car recorded the conversation.
Braun then admitted to attending the riot and tearing down barricades leading up to the Capitol. "How'd that work out for ya?" the driver asked Braun, per NBC News.
"Well," he reportedly replied, "it looks like, uh, Biden's gonna be our president."
The Uber driver later gave footage of the conversation to the police, and Braun was eventually arrested earlier this month on charges of obstruction during civil disorder, entering and remaining on restricted grounds, and violent or disorderly conduct.
A group of "online sleuths" also helped the FBI catch Braun, though that isn't explicitly mentioned in the affidavit, NBC News reports. The group has "successfully identified hundreds of additional Capitol rioters who have not yet been arrested by the FBI," NBC News writes.
When the FBI searched Braun's California home in November 2021, the bureau found a selfie on his phone in which his eye injury is visible. Braun called the mark a "souvenir from D.C."
"After being asked by the agents if BRAUN had anything he wanted to tell them before he departed the search location, BRAUN responded, 'Guilty,'" the affidavit reads, per NBC News. "When asked what he was guilty of, BRAUN responded, 'Everything.'"