In a video that has since gone viral, Rachel Powell is seen holding a bullhorn and yelling out, “Hey guys I have been in the other room listen to me!”
Rachel Powell, aka as “The “Bullhorn Lady,” and “Pink Hat Lady,” a mother of eight who is suspected in the siege on the U.S. Capitol and listed on the FBI’s “Most Wanted,” was taken into custody in Pennsylvania Thursday night, federal authorities confirmed to CBS News on Friday.
Powell turned herself in after learning she was facing criminal charges, her attorney, Michael Engle, told the Associated Press. "She wanted to turn herself in to face these charges and address them head-on," he said.
Engle said his client is not a flight risk and has neither the means nor the desire to leave her young children. He also said he was reviewing the allegations against Powell and didn't comment on them, the AP reported.
Powell was scheduled to appear before a federal magistrate on Feb. 5. She faces multiple charges, including violent entry or disorderly conduct, obstruction and depredation of government property.
FBI agents raided Powell’s vacant Mercer County home on Thursday, searching for any evidence and to find any clues in her whereabouts. According to neighbors, Powell and some of her younger children hadn't been seen for a week or more and may have been in hiding in an unknown location, CBS News Pittsburgh reported.
In the video that has since gone viral, Powell is seen holding a bullhorn and yelling out to others who had stormed the Capitol, “Hey guys I have been in the other room listen to me!”
In the video, Powell appears to have information of the Capitol floor plan and issues orders to fellow insurrectionists on where best to go once inside. Moments before, she pushed a battering ram to knock out the windows to allow rioters to crawl inside, CBS Pittsburgh reported.
Until Thursday, the FBI has declined to call Powell a suspect, but the agency issued a short statement indicating it secured a search warrant for the raid on the house, CBS reported.
“We are conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity at that location. We are seeking the whereabouts of Rachel Powell,” the FBI said in a statement.
Powell is reportedly of special concern to federal investigators because if she had that knowledge, it could indicate the assault was pre-planned, authorities said. The FBI stated that any arrest or fugitive warrant is under seal and will not be made public until the person is captured or turns themselves in, the news outlet reported.
Powell previously told New Yorker investigative journalist Ronan Farrow that “her conduct had been spontaneous” at the Capitol.
“I was not part of a plot—organized, whatever,” Powell told Farrow, who indicated was speaking from an undisclosed location. “I have no military background... I’m a mom with eight kids. That’s it. I work. And I garden. And raise chickens. And sell cheese at a farmers’ market.”
Powell's neighbors were reportedly disturbed to hear of her alleged participation in the assault on the Capitol. “We’re Republican but we'd never do something like that," one resident told CBS Pittsburgh. "Biden's the president right now. Live with it. Get over it."
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