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Cameron Clapp was arrested in connection with his role in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack. (Photos from court documents)
A California triple amputee who lost most of his limbs when he got hit by a freight train as a teenager was arrested for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol after video showed him entering the building for four minutes.
“I made it in, but there’s [pause] nobody’s in, like everyone’s leaving,” Cameron C. Clapp, 37, allegedly said shortly after exiting the building.
He was arrested on Tuesday, according to his arrest warrant filed in January, and unsealed on the day of his arrest. He’s accused of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly or disruptive conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building — misdemeanors that carry a combined potential sentence of three years behind bars.
According to prosecutors, Clapp traveled from California to Washington, D.C., to join thousands of Donald Trump supporters protesting against Congress certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral win. He allegedly joined the mob at the Capitol that day, apparently entering the building at around 3:34 p.m., more than an hour after the initial violent breach of the building that forced lawmakers and staff to either flee the building or shelter in place for hours.
Two minutes later, he was seen taking “photos and/or video in the area near the Senate Wing Door,” the probable cause affidavit says.
Two minutes after that, he left — apparently disappointed by what he perceived as a lack of action.
“I made it in but there’s [pause] nobody’s in, like everyone’s leaving so [pause] I did my part. I’m . . . satisfied,” he said, according to the affidavit, which cites “open-source video” of Clapp after he left the building and standing outside the Senate Wing door.
Clapp was arrested after the FBI received a tip that he entered the Capitol building on that day, court records show.
It was unclear on Wednesday whether he had an attorney to speak on his behalf.
Clapp is a triple-amputee with an illustrious list of accomplishments that he attained after losing three of his limbs as a teen. He was just 15 years old when he passed out drunk on train tracks on Sept. 15, 2001, near his home in the Golden State’s central coast city of Grover Beach after a party that was thrown to remember the victims of the terrorist attacks on U.S. soil days earlier. When he woke up in the hospital, his right arm had been amputated, along with both legs at the knees.
“I was drunk and didn’t see — I didn’t hear the train that was right there on the tracks. Boom!” Clapp told Los Angeles’ KNBC in 2012. “That thing hit me, tossed my body around, got my arm, cut my legs off first, got my arm second, and I don’t really remember actually being hit by the train.”
“I don’t have any remorse or regret for the event that took my legs and my arm because I know I wouldn’t be who I am today,” he added. “I was definitely a rebel, you know, a hooligan. I was drinking all the time. My behavior was self-destructive.”
He went to rehab and learned how to walk and run marathons and aspired to be in the Paralympcs, joking, “there aren’t enough athletes in my category. I’m the only triple amputee that runs!”
In a 2005 article featuring his state-of-the-art prosthetic “robo-legs,” the New York Times called Clapp the quintessential California teenager with blond hair, buff torso, and megawatt smile.
He follows luminaries Christopher Reeve and Ray Charles as a 2006 recipient of a Shining Star Award, recognizing individuals who have supported people with disabilities, from Just One Break, Inc. (JOB), a nonprofit whose co-founder was Eleanor Roosevelt.
“This was the biggest event of my life and something of which I’ll always be proud,” he said at the time.
