Jan. 6 rioter killed in Seattle in 2024, not after Trump pardons | Fact check
The claim: Two pardoned Jan. 6 defendants were killed within 24 hours
A Jan. 28 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) claims two individuals pardoned by President Donald Trump were killed within a day of each other.
“So one of the J6’ers who was pardoned was killed in a traffic stop and now I just learned that another women (sic) who resided in Seattle was shot in her front yard,” reads the post. “Just within 24hrs two of the pardoned J6’ers are now dead.”
Another version of the claim was shared more than 25,000 times on TikTok.
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Our rating: False
A pardoned Jan. 6 defendant was killed during a traffic stop on Jan. 26. The second death mentioned in the post happened in October 2024, predating the pardons by several months. That person, Tamara Towers Parry, was never charged in the Jan. 6 attack.
Seattle woman posted Capitol videos on Jan. 6 but wasn't charged
Trump pardoned more than 1,500 people charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol on the first day of his second term. But there’s no evidence two of them were killed in the following days.
Matthew Huttle, a 42-year-old Indiana man who received a pardon from Trump, was killed during a traffic stop on Jan. 26, as reported by Paste BN. A Jasper County sheriff’s deputy who pulled Huttle over attempted to arrest him during the stop. Huttle resisted and struggled with the deputy, at which point the deputy fatally shot him, according to an Indiana State Police news release.
The statement did not specify why Huttle was pulled over or why the deputy attempted to arrest him, but it noted that Huttle was in possession of a gun.
Huttle, who the Indianapolis Star reported had an extensive criminal record, had pleaded guilty to entering and remaining in a restricted building in relation to the Capitol attack and was sentenced in November 2023 to six months in prison.
Fact check: California man imprisoned after Trump's Jan. 6 pardons in separate federal firearms case
But the second death mentioned in the post predated the pardons by several months.
In that case, Towers Parry, 57, was fatally shot after pointing a gun at two individuals delivering paperwork to her home in October 2024, as reported by The Seattle Times. Parry was facing eviction proceedings at the time.
The two individuals were cooperative with officials and had not been arrested as of the following day.
Parry had posted videos from the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, but was never criminally charged, KPLC-TV in Seattle reported.
There are no reports from legitimate outlets about an individual involved in the Capitol attack being killed in Seattle in the days since Trump’s pardons.
Paste BN has debunked an array of related claims, including false assertions that members of Congress filed impeachment articles and that a police union rescinded its Trump endorsement over the pardons.
Paste BN reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Lead Stories also debunked the claim.
Our fact-check sources
- Paste BN, Jan. 28, Indiana man pardoned by Trump for Jan. 6 riot is shot and killed by deputy during arrest
- Indiana State Police, Jan. 27, Indiana State Police Investigate Officer Involved Shooting in Jasper County
- KPLC-TV, Oct. 3, 2024, ‘Tense situation’: Woman armed with shotgun killed while being served paperwork, police say
- Seattle Times, Oct. 2, 2024, Former doctor who participated in Jan. 6 attack killed in shooting at West Seattle home
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