Brian is 100% innocent. The government says he is the person in the gray hoodie. This page is the other half of that identification: the traits that led reporters, and then the FBI, to compare the hooded figure with a Capitol Police officer.
As the complaint describes the personOne figure. A short list of traits.
The affidavit says one person placed both devices and was on video in the neighborhood from about 7:34 p.m. to 8:18 p.m. on January 5, 2021. The DNC device was placed at about 7:54 p.m. The RNC device was placed at about 8:16 p.m. [7]
On that video the person wears dark pants, a gray hooded sweatshirt, dark gloves, Nike Air Max Speed Turf shoes, and a face mask, and at times adjusts eyeglasses. The person carries a backpack. A January 2021 height analysis put the distance from the ground to the top of the head, including headwear, at 5 feet 7 inches, plus or minus 1.1 inches. [7]
In January 2025 the FBI still described the same height, mask, gray hoodie, black gloves, backpack, and black-and-gray Nike Air Max Speed Turf shoes with a yellow logo. It said fewer than 25,000 pairs were sold between August 2018 and January 2021. Four years in, the bureau had not determined whether the person was a man or a woman. [26]
Why the route is part of the comparison
The person moved on foot between the two buildings, through a neighborhood a Capitol Police officer works. Blaze News, crediting the video researcher Armitas, wrote that the figure used a shortcut at 1st and C streets and left through a church garden gate after placing the device behind the Capitol Hill Club. That is an attributed reading of someone who knew the block. It is a route claim, and it still has to be checked on the cameras. Source [27] · Open the map
A radio. A vest. A handgun.
On October 22, 2026, Steve Baker and Kyle Seraphin pointed at three shapes under the hoodie: an outline at the waist they read as a handgun, a light detail at the chest they read as a radio microphone, and hard edges they read as body armor. The stills show the positions. They do not identify the objects. [25]
A separate allegation, from Baker’s September 1, 2026 account of an October 16, 2025 briefing, says a redacted FirstNet number was located within three meters of both placement sites. FirstNet is the network built for public safety. The underlying location records were not in the sources reviewed here. A phone lead does not identify the person wearing the hoodie. [16]
Shauni Kerkhoff, trait by trait.
Kerkhoff was a Capitol Police officer from 2018 until mid-2021, assigned to the Civil Disturbance Unit and as an instructor on less-lethal weapons. She left for a campus-security job at the CIA. CIA spokeswoman Liz Lyons told Blaze News the job was campus security, and that Kerkhoff was not on the director’s personal detail. On January 6 she was on duty at the Capitol and was the first government witness at the first January 6 trial. [27] [31]
| Trait | Hooded figure | Kerkhoff | What limits the match |
|---|---|---|---|
| Height | About 5 feet 7 inches, including the hood, plus or minus 1.1 inches. | Temple’s 2015 roster lists her at 5 feet 7 inches. | The complaint lists Brian at 5 feet 6 inches. The band covers both people. Height alone does not pick one of them. |
| Build of the walk | The FBI had not said whether the person was a man or a woman. Armitas writes that viewers say “That’s a woman,” and that the walk has sway. | She is a woman, a former Division I goalkeeper, and the officer in the January 27 photograph. | Armitas’s film compares the hoodie with Brian. It is not a film of Kerkhoff. Her lawsuit’s description of the then-unknown suspect uses “he.” |
| Gait and the right leg | Blaze compared an alley walk near C Street, about 8:16 p.m., using a copy it said was clearer than the FBI release. | On September 4, 2015 she broke her tibia against Penn. Surgeons put a steel rod in the leg. Blaze said the repair left a slight limp in the right leg, and that her walk scored 94 percent, with the analyst at 96 to 98 percent. | Her lawsuit says she does not limp, and points to later marathons and a Capitol Police fitness record. The clips and the software were not released. The FBI’s podiatrist reached no conclusion. |
| Shoes | Nike Air Max Speed Turf, black and gray, yellow logo. Fewer than 25,000 pairs sold in the relevant window. | Her lawsuit says the agents who came to the house told her they were looking for those shoes. | The filings reviewed here do not report that a pair was found. A search for the shoe is not a photograph of her wearing it on January 5. |
| Kit | Possible handgun outline, chest microphone, and armor, in the October 22 reading. | The January 27 photograph shows a duty belt with a holstered handgun, a radio, and handcuffs, and her job was less-lethal instruction. | The photograph is a uniformed training scene. The hoodie stills do not resolve the objects under the sweatshirt. |
| That evening | On camera in the southeast neighborhood from about 7:34 p.m. to 8:18 p.m. | The government says her overtime shift ended at 5:40 p.m., a 5:18 p.m. text read “Coming home!,” and a home video captures her voice at 7:37:48 p.m. | 7:37 p.m. sits inside the hooded figure’s window. The defense has asked for the video, its metadata, and the rest of that night’s recordings. Those files are not in this archive. |
Sources for the rows: the complaint [7], the FBI’s 2025 description [26], Blaze News [27], the Temple roster [28], her lawsuit [32], the defense motion [30], and the government’s response [31].
How the gait number was produced.
Steve Baker and Joseph M. Hanneman reported that Blaze News arranged a comparison of Kerkhoff’s walk with the hooded figure. The software scored knee flexion, hip extension, speed, step length, cadence, and variance. It returned 94 percent. The analyst who ran it, not named in the article, said visual details the program struggles with put the match closer to 96 to 98 percent. Two other unnamed people “familiar with gait analysis” told Blaze they agreed the walks matched. Several unnamed intelligence sources were described as confirming the result after viewing it. [27]
The samples of her walk were January 6 Capitol Police CCTV and 2017 footage of her playing for the Columbus Eagles. The hooded sample was an alley near C Street, about 8:16 p.m., from a copy Blaze said was not the FBI’s public video. Armitas had told Blaze the FBI release was downsampled. The analyst told Blaze that gait software can work at a distance and at a faster-than-normal pace, and that it does not need the resolution facial recognition needs, because the hood and the mask hid the face. [27]
What her lawsuit says about that method
Kerkhoff sued Blaze Media, Baker, and Hanneman. The complaint says the software, the data set, the operator’s qualifications, and any control comparison were never disclosed. It says the January 6 clips show her in duty gear, with a PepperBall launcher, a loaded gear bag, and a gas-mask bag, while the hooded figure carries a backpack. It says gait research Blaze itself had linked treats gait as corroboration, and that forensic gait analysis has not been used as a positive identification at an American trial. It says she does not walk with a limp. Read the complaint [32]
The article was retracted after Brian’s arrest. The government’s August 28, 2026 filing cites a December 5, 2025 Washington Post report of that retraction. Snopes dates the retraction to December 4. [31] [27]
The FBI opened a file on her.
The defense motion, drawn from discovery, says the FBI interviewed Kerkhoff and polygraphed her on November 6, 2025. The relevant questions were “Did you place those pipe bombs?” and “Did you place those pipe bombs that evening?” The motion says she failed, and that the examiner noted a very controlled reaction and seemingly rehearsed answers. On November 7, five days before the FBI opened a file on Brian, it named her a person of interest. Agents sought her accounts, interviewed a dog walker, coworkers, and neighbors, asked the CIA for employment records, surveilled her, and sent footage of her walking to podiatrist Michael Nirenberg. Brian was arrested on December 5, 2025. The surveillance lead was closed on January 7, 2026. [30]
The government’s later filing agrees she was investigated because of the Blaze claim. It says she consented to an interview, a search of her home and car, and the polygraph. The examiner told her she had failed. The written opinion was “Deception Indicated.” She denied placing the devices, denied knowing who did, and denied buying explosives. The filing says a polygraph result is not admissible as proof of the crime. It says the podiatrist could not reach a conclusion, and that the investigation produced zero evidence connecting her to building, carrying, or planting the devices. [31]
The same filing sets out the alibi the FBI says it established. Her Capitol Police records show the overtime day shift ended at 5:40 p.m. A text to Sergeant Daniel Dickert, also Capitol Police, at 5:18:55 p.m. says “Coming home!” Dickert produced a Roseina’s receipt timestamped 5:39 p.m. His phone had a video, timestamped 7:37:48 p.m., inside their Falls Church home, showing their dog and capturing her voice. The defense subpoenas ask for that video, other recordings from the same device that day, Dickert’s home cameras, and the receipt, so the timestamp and the voice can be tested. The government says those materials were already produced in discovery under a protective order. They are not in this public archive. [30] [31]
Brian’s lawyers told the court he maintains his innocence and preserves the right to present at trial that Kerkhoff placed the devices. The government opposes the subpoenas and calls the Blaze gait claim an insufficient basis for them. [30] [31]
The walk we have. The walk we do not.
The side-by-side clips Blaze described, her January 6 CCTV against the alley, were not released with the article. Snopes reported that the analysis and the videos were not available to review. They are not in this archive. What is here is Armitas’s later comparison of the hooded walk with Brian, and the October 22 equipment stills. [27] [33]
The map puts the hooded route on the southeast side of the Capitol and the comparison route, the one Baker and the family identify as Brian, on the northwest side. Open the geographic map · Read the two clocks · Watch the equipment clip
Five files this page does not have.
Still outside the archive
- The gait-software output, the analyst’s name, and the January 6 clips of Kerkhoff set beside the alley.
- The FBI’s higher-quality suspect video from October 2025. An earlier attempt to save it from fbi.gov was blocked.
- Dr. Nirenberg’s gait file. The defense subpoena asks for it. The government says the podiatrist reached no conclusion.
- The 7:37:48 p.m. home video, the other recordings from that device, and the Roseina’s receipt.
- A purchase record, or a clear frame, showing who bought and wore the Nike Air Max Speed Turf shoes.
Until those are public, the comparison is a checklist with a name on it: a 5-foot-7 Capitol Police instructor, a reported right-leg limp, a search for the rare shoes, and shapes that may be police kit. The government’s answer is an alibi at home and a podiatrist who would not call the walks a match. The filings are linked here.