The now-infamous crutches that appeared multiple times at the mouth of the tunnel entrance to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, were stolen from a young man with a broken ankle, according to podcaster Steve Baker.
“At one particular meet-up, and in casual discussion after one of those meetings,” Baker told The Epoch Times, “a young lady mentioned to me that it was her own brother’s crutches that had become a central feature at the Capitol’s west side tunnel skirmish.”
The crutches were at various times on Jan. 6 used as a weapon and a shield. They were memorialized most vividly in photos of protester Luke Coffee holding up one crutch over his head as he stood between police and the raucous crowd.
The crutches belonged to an 18-year-old Texas man who came to Washington D.C. to hear then-President Donald J. Trump speak at the “Stop the Steal” rally at the Ellipse. He and a buddy drove from Texas and got to D.C. in time to hear Trump speak, Baker said.
“Early on the morning of the 6th, they managed to find street parking about a mile away from the Ellipse, and together made the difficult hike to the rally site,” he said. “Difficult for the kid walking on a pair of crutches.”
The young man with the broken ankle is a big Trump fan from a conservative Christian family. His friend had little interest in politics, but “jumped at the chance” for an adventurous early January road trip, Baker said.
When the men arrived, a tunnel skirmish was underway amidst thousands of protesters outside the tunnel entryway.
They pressed ahead until they were on the edge of the trouble. A protester suddenly swiped the crutches from the man. That was the last time he had control of them.
Theft of the crutches took place almost immediately after the men arrived at the tunnel entrance, Baker said. He verified the stories by reviewing CCTV security video from inside the tunnel.
“In my subsequent review of videos, I was able to identify both from their descriptions at various times during the approximately two hours they were in that area,” Baker said. “Interestingly, in the available videos I pored over, at no time was either of their faces clearly revealed. I was able to pick them out of the crowd in the specific locations and times they shared.”
The first couple of times, the crutches were used like a javelin, thrown at the police line at the mouth of the tunnel. On other occasions, a rioter used both crutches to smash at officers on the front line.
“A protester can be seen leaning over the handrail, picking up one of the crutches,” Baker said of the security video. “He immediately used it as a spear, tossing it toward the tunnel entrance. His aim was off and it hit another protester standing on the right side of the tunnel entrance. That knocked off the man’s ballcap.
“He then leaned over the rail again, retrieved the second crutch, and tried again. This time his aim was better, and the crutch sailed over the line of protesters and into the police line, bouncing off, back into the crowd.”
At the time that Coffee picked up a crutch and held it over his head, the second crutch was inside the tunnel along the right wall, video footage shows. While Coffee held the crutch aloft, bystanders crept up and pulled an unconscious Rosanne Boyland away from the tunnel entrance.
As police cleared the Lower West Terrace, the Texas men began the arduous trek back to their vehicle. It was slow going without the crutches, and they didn’t reach the car until nearly 10 p.m.
After returning to Texas, the young men watched with concern as dozens of Texans were rounded up by the FBI, some for simply being on the Capitol grounds at the wrong time. Baker said they worry about somehow being tied to the violence at the tunnel entrance.
Baker said his stumbling on the story was a “fortuitous fluke.” He changed a few of the key details in order to shield the men from being dragged into a criminal case for being witnesses to a slice of Jan. 6.
