Audrey Ann Southard-Rumsey, a singer from Tampa, has added charges of physical assault on a police officer to her bio after her arrest today by the FBI in connection with the January 6 Capitol riot.
Southard-Rumsey was accused of pressing a flagpole into the chest of a police officer and pushing him through doors onto the House floor, causing him to strike his head on the base of the statue. She also used her professionally trained vocal cord to belt out some memorable lines, according to the FBI report:
- "Tell Pelosi we're coming for that bitch!"
- "You ready, you ready."
- "There's a hundred thousand of us. What's it going to be?"
- "Last friend, last bullet. What's it going to be?"
- "Alright push in here. You ready to go again?
- (To an officer): "We're coming, we're coming. Let us through. We have the building already."
Southard-Rumsey's appearance at the Capitol had originally been chronicled in the Tampa Bay Times January 14. But with no arrest to report at the time, the story focused more on the human-interest side of her background.
"The Spring Hill vocal coach and piano teacher sang like an angel when she posted videos of herself crooning Norah Jones' Don't Know Why or belting out Memory from Cats, and when she went to Sicily in 2012 for an international music competition, she won," the Times reported.
"That led to a showcase on a stage inside New York's Carnegie Hall."
The newspaper also had reported this:
"In a first-person video recorded by YouTuber JaydenX, Southard charges through Statuary Hall — staying within the velvet ropes — and stands at the front of a group blocked by police at a hallway.
The group chants "USA" and "We want Trump" as some men at the front try to talk police into stepping aside.
"When an officer says something inaudible on the video to Southard, she replies, "For my son!"
And when one protester tells the crowd that the police might let them by if they agree to be peaceful and quiet, Southard, holding the wooden pole attached to an American flag flat against an officer's torso, yells: "Bulls--t! They're going to feel us!"
"We're pushing through. Boys, ready to go again?" she shouts back to the crowd, before yelling at an officer, "last breath or last bullet, what's it going to be?"
"The crowd forces its way past those officers. Southard disappears from view. The rioters soon bottleneck again at a locked door. The camera looks through a window and trains on an officer's arm on the other side, holding a pistol. Seconds later, 35-year-old Ashli Babbitt is shot.
Earlier that day, Southard, 52, posted a now-deleted live video to her own Facebook page.
"We're standing in front of the Capitol building, ready to take it," she said. "It's gonna be fun."
"Southard declined to talk to the Tampa Bay Times for this story beyond denying she was in Washington, D.C., at all."
The Times reported on Southard's encore appearance today;
"Southard entered a Tampa federal courtroom Wednesday afternoon with arms crossed. She sat quietly at a defense table, gazing through reading glasses at court paperwork.
"A judge read a list of nine crimes that had been alleged in a complaint against her. They include assault on a federal officer, obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder, obstruction of justice or congress, disorderly conduct in a restricted building or grounds, and engaging in a physical act of violence on capitol grounds.
"In court Wednesday, Southard told U.S. Magistrate Judge Anthony Porcelli that she had talked with a private attorney, but she did not know if she could afford one going forward. The judge appointed a federal public defender to represent her for the hearing.
"He allowed Southard to be released on a $50,000 signature bond, which requires that she will only have to pay if she fails to make future court appearances.
"Her release came with conditions. She will be restricted from traveling outside the Middle District of Florida while her case is pending. She can travel to Washington, D.C. for court appearances.
"Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Scruggs expressed concern that upon her arrest Southard refused to answer a question about whether she had any guns. The judge ordered that Southard must surrender any firearms she owns. She was also ordered to turn over her passport."
You can read the FBI report here.
