Former NYPD officer convicted for her role in Jan. 6 assault on Capitol Hill

A retired NYPD officer, seen shaking a tambourine and shouting “I’m a f—–g animal,” during the Jan. 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill in 2021, was convicted of felony and misdemeanor charges for her role in the armed breach.

Jurors in federal court in Washington D.C. found Sara Carpenter, 53, of Richmond Hill, Queens, guilty on Thursday of civil disorder, obstruction of an official proceeding, both felonies, and five misdemeanors after joining a violent mob of Donald Trump supporters who stormed the seat of American government.

Prosecutors had said Carpenter was captured on closed-circuit TV in the Capitol Rotunda and elsewhere in the building, where she pushed up against officers who were guarding a hallway to the Senate chamber.

Carpenter also slapped the arms of law enforcement officers who were trying to hold her back from further intruding into the Capitol, authorities said.

Despite being told to leave, and despite enduring the effects of chemical irritants, the Queens resident remained in the Capitol for 34 minutes.

When she left, Carpenter urged lawmakers inside to set aside their effort to certify election winner Joe Biden.

“The breach was made,” Carpenter said.” It needs to calm down now. Congress needs to come out. They need to certify Trump as president. This is our house.”

Then she raised and shook her tambourine above her head.

Carpenter told FBI agents that she went to the Capitol with others after hearing then-President Donald Trump instruct them to “march to the Capitol,” according to a court filing.

An anonymous tipster dropped a dime on Carpenter to the FBI, authorities said. Carpenter called a relative and owned up to being at the Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection. She claimed she was tear gassed and returned to New York City that night.

Carpenter spoke willingly with the federal agents who interviewed her and gave this video she took from inside the building, prosecutors said.

The former cop was on a reality TV show in 2011 touting her invention, a “soft retractable-leash with a pocket for waste bags,” according to TheBark.com.

U.S. District Court Judge James E. Boasberg scheduled sentencing for July 14, 2023.

Carpenter retired from the NYPD in 2004 after about 10 years of service. During the 1990s, she worked as a spokeswoman for the NYPD.

Carpenter was one of a number of current and former members of law enforcement charged with participating in the attack.

Another retired NYPD officer, Thomas Webster, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in September for assaulting a Metropolitan Police Department cop while storming the Capitol.

Webster, who worked on Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s security detail and retired in 2011, was caught on video swinging a flagpole at an officer and sticking his thumb into the cop’s eye while calling him a “commie motherf—-r.”

The riot left five people dead, including Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick. Two other cops who defended the Capitol that day killed themselves in the months after the violence, which injured nearly 140 other cops.