Ohio FBI shooting - latest: ‘Violent extremist’ Ricky Shiffer investigated for months after Jan 6

Although Ohio shooting suspect Ricky Shiffer was believed to have tweeted about attending the US Capitol on January 6, it remains unclear if he did enter the building.

As The New York Times reported on Thursday, a tweet by an account thought to being to Shiffer claimed in May: “ I was there. We watched as your goons did that.”

The tweet had been in response to a photo of rioters climbing the walls of the Capitol Building, and was among multiple posts with pro-Trump messaging.

Officials told reporters following the attack on an FBI office that the 42-year-old had not been charged in connection with the riot, although law enforcement had seen the Columbus, Ohio, resident in photos from the riot, NBC News reported.

Ricky Shiffer has been considered a “suspected domestic violent extremist” by investigators, law enforcement officials were reported as saying on Friday.

An official told ABC News that Shiffer was being investigated as a “suspected domestic violent extremist” and that his social media history was under investigation following the attack on an FBI office on Thursday.

The report cited his social media posts on Twitter and Truth Social, the platform set-up by Donald Trump after leaving office.

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Suspect Ricky Shiffer was armed with a nail gun and an AR-15-style rifle when he tried to breach the visitor screening area at the FBI office Thursday, a law enforcement official told the Associated Press.

Earlier reports said Shiffer had fired a nail gun at the FBI office in Cincinnati, Ohio, before attempting to breach the visitor screening area of the building.

He then fled when agents confronted him, and was later shot dead during a standoff involving FBI agents and Ohio State Highway Patrol.

AR-15’s are a semi-automatic weapon that have been heavily criticised amid a series of mass shootings in the US this year, including at a 4 July parade and in schools.

The Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank that monitors extremism and online hate speech, has said in a briefing that that social media posts allegedly belonging to suspect Ricky Shiffer showed he was likely “motivated by a combination of conspiratorial beliefs related to former President Trump and the 2020 election (among others)”.

The think tank added that he also appeared to show “interest in killing federal law enforcement” following the FBI’s execution of a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago this week.

Public records show that Ohio FBI attack suspect Ricky Shiffer was a registered Republican who voted in the 2020 primary and general election from Ohio and Oklahoma.

The 42-year-old, who social media posts appeared to show was an ardent support of Donald Trump, also appears in court records in Ohio following a lawsuit filed by the Ohio Department of Taxation.

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House minority whip Steve Scalise has come under fire on social media for labelling the FBI agents who searched Mar-a-Lago as “rogue” on Fox & Friends.

He made the remarks mere hours before a man tried to breach an FBI office in Cincinnati, leading to widespread criticism online. Rep Scalise also refused to defend other House Republicans who had called for the FBI to be “defunded” and “destroyed” in recent days.

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Social media messages seen by news outlets before they became unavailable suggest Ricky Shiffer, the suspect in the attack on the FBI office in Ohio, had called for the deaths of FBI personnel.

On Donald Trump’s Truth Social media platform, an account belonging to a Ricky Shiffer had posted a “call to arms” and urged people to arm themselves and “be ready for combat” after the search, the Associated Press reported.

At least one of the messages on Truth Social appeared to have been posted after Shiffer failed to break into the FBI building in Cincinnati. It read: “If you don’t hear from me, it is true I tried attacking the FBI”.

Law enforcement officials are analysing the social media posts and told ABC News on Friday that the suspect is a “suspected domestic violent extremist”.

It was also thought that Shiffer had attended the January 6 Capitol riot with other Trump supporters.

Sherrod Brown, a Democrat senator for Ohio, tweeted on Thursday that the attempted assault on the FBI’s field office in Cincinnati was “an appalling attack on law enforcement”.

Federal officials were looking into Ricky Shiffer for months, long before the Ohio gunman attacked an FBI office in Cincinnati on Thursday and was killed in a firefight with police.

Officials were looking into whether Shiffer was involved in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol or tied to extremist groups there, the New York Times reports.

A neighbour told the Times that federal agents had showed up at their apartment complex and asked questions.

Social media accounts appearing to belong to Shiffer posted about being at the January 6 riot.

On Friday, Republican congressman Mike Turner reportedly became the first Republican lawmaker from Ohio to address the attack on the FBI office in Cincinnati.

Speaking during a press briefing on Friday, the Ohio Republican said all members of the House Intelligence Committee “are in full support of the men and women who everyday work to keep our nation safe and we condemn any action of violence”.

He went on to question the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago however and said his committee has “serious questions” about the Justice Department’s authorisation of the FBI search on former Republican president Donald Trump’s Florida property.

The GOP has been condemned by Democrats for criticism of the FBI and Attorney General Merrick Garland, who said on Thursday that his department did not take authorisation of a search warrant against Mr Trump “lightly”.