PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) – A Portsmouth man was charged with crimes connected to the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection, and the FBI tied him to it through his shoes.
According to court documents filed last Friday, on June 18, the FBI received a tip that indicated Jeffrey Etter of Portsmouth was one of the people who illegally entered the U.S Capitol on Jan. 6.
The tip included a WAVY news story from May 29, 2020 with the headline, Portsmouth gym continues to operate despite police intervention, which included a video of Etter in the story.
The FBI used videos of Etter to identify a pair of shoes he wears. Agents identified those same shoes worn by a man matching Etter’s description in the insurrection footage.
The FBI also alleged that cellphone location data put Etter’s phone in the same area as the U.S. Capitol on the afternoon of Jan. 6.
The investigation revealed the person assessed as Etter was seen in multiple clips of the Metropolitan Police Department body cam footage from around the U.S Capitol, and in footage, could be heard yelling profanities as he was walking toward MPD officers.
The FBI, in the court document, said Etter was inside the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6 for about 33 minutes.
Etter was a former co-owner of a CrossFit Slice in Portsmouth.
We reached out to Etter’s attorney, Brian Latuga, for comment.
Latuga said Etter would likely get a new attorney in Washington D.C. following his next