A high-ranking D.C. police officer who is accused of improper contact with the leader of the Proud Boys was copied on a series of emails and conference call invitations related to the planning of a pro-Trump rally on Jan. 6, 2021, emails show.
Lt. Shane Lamond, an officer in the D.C. police’s intelligence branch, is on administrative leave pending an investigation into his contacts with Enrique Tarrio, the Washington Post first reported. Tarrio is the former leader of the far-right paramilitary group the Proud Boys and was the organization’s chairman at the time of the Jan. 6 riot. The nature of Lamond’s alleged contact with Tarrio is unclear. But public documents suggest that Lamond’s official duties tasked him with monitoring events that would later become relevant to the Proud Boys, including the planning of the rally that would lead to the Capitol riot.
Neither Lamond nor Tarrio returned requests for comment. A D.C. police spokesperson declined to comment, directing The Daily Beast to a Wednesday press conference where D.C. Police Chief Robert J. Contee III announced Lamond’s suspension.
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Contee did not name Lamond at the press conference, noting that he was “very limited in terms of what I can say.” Contee said the FBI and Department of Justice had begun investigations into the officer. Contee said his department was also investigating, and that he had placed the officer on leave this week “based upon my review of what we know so far.”
Tarrio told the Post that Lamond had acted as the Proud Boys’ official D.C. police liaison. Tarrio claimed he notified Lamond when his group planned to hold rallies in the city, and that Lamond had notified the Proud Boys of counter-demonstrators’ locations.
“He was just a liaison officer for when we held rallies,” Tarrio told the Post, adding that “I only told him, ‘We’re coming into town and we’re going to hold this protest.’ That’s as far as the relationship went.”
Lamond’s work as an intelligence officer appeared to bring him into frequent contact with far-right demonstrators, including those who planned the Jan. 6 rally that would later become an attack on the Capitol. Law enforcement emails, made public as part of the investigation into the riot, show Lamond copied on a number of messages about the upcoming rally.
Some of those messages were from Secret Service members to high-ranking D.C. police officers, informing them of Donald Trump’s plan to attend the rally. Other messages were between rally organizers and the National Parks Service, concerning the details of the event. In both cases, Lamond was among a handful of D.C. police officers copied on the conversations.
On at least one occasion, Lamond was invited to a conference call or a Microsoft Teams meeting to discuss the upcoming rally. The planning emails also included attachments (not available in public documents) with names like “All Out of Bubble Gum Site Plan.pptx.” (“I’m here to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and I’m all out of bubblegum” is a quote-turned-meme from the 1988 movie They Live.)
During the Wednesday press conference, Contee declined to answer a reporter’s question about whether the investigation into Lamond related to him passing Jan. 6-related information to the Proud Boys. “I can’t say that,” Contee said. “I don’t know that to be fact.”
Police liaisons for far-right groups have previously come under scrutiny for their communications with those organizations. A Portland, Oregon police liaison for the group Patriot Prayer was investigated for potential misconduct in 2019 after his texts with the group’s leader suggested a friendly relationship. In those texts, Lt. Jeff Niiya told Patriot Prayer’s leader that he did not want to arrest Patriot Prayer member Tusitala Toese, even if Toese had an open warrant. “Just make sure he doesn’t do anything which may draw our attention,” Niiya wrote of Toese. Niiya also told the group’s leader where leftist organizations were demonstrating. Niiya was cleared of wrongdoing in 2019.
Tarrio told the Post that Lamond had passed along similar information about the locations of counter-demonstrations, ostensibly to prevent clashes between the two factions. But, as the Post noted, Proud Boys have frequently been accused of seeking out leftist protesters for street brawls. D.C. police have previously accused the group of instigating fights with people they believe to be anti-fascists.
Lamond is currently on paid administrative leave, although his pay could be suspended pending the investigation’s findings, Contee said on Wednesday.
