EL RENO, OKLA. (KFOR) — Canadian County Sheriff Chris West has said while he was in D.C. last week for the Trump rally, he did not push past police or enter the Capitol building. However, some recently surfaced social media posts are raising some questions.
“The egregious crimes on our beacon and bastion of last hope for our nation, breaking into that and terrorizing it,” Canadian County Sheriff Chris West said on Friday. “I rebuke all of that, every bit of it.”
That was during a press conference on Friday when Sheriff West talked about what he witnessed while attending the protests outside the U.S. Capitol last week.
He insisted he did not push past any police officers or go inside the building with the rioters.
Then over the weekend, posts from a since-deleted Facebook account, allegedly belonging to the sheriff, surfaced.
One of the posts reads: “If they’re okay rigging an election and foreign help to steal the white house and control of WeThePeople, then I’m okay with using whatever means necessary to preserve America and save FREEDOM & LIBERTY.”
Also, in a conversation with another Oklahoman who wrote, “I want several in Congress… in prison,” the alleged West account wrote back, “or worse”
There is also a post made by an Oklahoman named Bryan Harter that reads, “I was in DC for the protest at the capitol with sheriff west. I took a weeks vacation spent my own money and drove 40 hours round trip! After 23 years of military service, I felt it my duty to stand for us. For fair elections. Honestly they are lucky we just occupied. We literally pushed past the police said we are here and left. Burned nothing looted nothing. Now we are called terrorists. People better wake Up, before its too late.”
News 4 contacted Harter with further questions, and he hung up on us.
However, he then texted us saying he was not with Sheriff West and simply meant they were both in D.C.
He said he did not go into the Capitol and believes the sheriff did not go into the Capitol either.
Harter declined to do an interview.
Some Canadian County citizens wrote on Facebook over the weekend, “If West pushed past police, he should resign.”
Another person wrote, “Canadian County Sheriff West should know when you are with the robbers you are included in the crime.”
News 4 spoke with other citizens who defended Sheriff West.
“He does what he wants to do. I ain’t for any control over him,” Helen Wilds said.
“I think it’s great. I think we need to support our president. He’s done so much for us the last four years,” Dale Nail said.
News 4 sent Sheriff West all of the screenshots we received, asking for him to verify their authenticity or to denounce them as fakes. We can tell by the “read receipts” sent from his phone that the messages were seen.
As of Monday evening, Sheriff West has not responded.
News 4 reached out to the FBI Oklahoma City office to see if they are investigating Sheriff West’s involvement in the protests in D.C. and we received this response:
“Per FBI/DOJ policy, the FBI neither confirms nor denies the existence of investigations it conducts. However, we are asking he public to come forward with any information which may be helpful in bringing to justice those who were involved in the civil unrest at the Capitol building last week.”
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