Federal authorities stormed the home of a Sheepshead Bay sanitation worker and arrested the 43-year-old man for allegedly participating in the insurrection of the US Capitol building on Jan. 6.
Dominick Madden’s neighbors were startled to see swarms of federal agents raiding the civil service workers’ house on a sleepy stretch of Batchelder Street between Shore Parkway and Voorhies Avenue.
“This is the last block I thought I would see the FBI on,” a neighbor named Craig said.
“He probably went down to Washington DC and got caught up in the insurrection,” neighbor David Campbell suspected, correctly.
Surveillance footage obtained by the FBI shows Madden in a bright blue QAnon sweatshirt in various parts of the Capitol building, including the crypt and one of the Capitol wings. License plate reader data shows that Madden drove southbound on the I-295 on the day of the riot, and returned north the day after.
Using Madden’s telephone number, which they obtained from the Department of Sanitation, investigators tracked down the southern Brooklynite’s account on Telegram — an encrypted messaging service increasingly popular in extremist circles.
The account’s profile picture was a side-by-side of one man who appeared to be Madden in a blue QAnon shirt and Mel Gibson in the movie “Braveheart.”
A file photo shows a man in a blue QAnon shirt who bears a striking resemblance to Madden at a contentious “Back the Blue” rally in Gerritsen Beach in August — which came a few months before his alleged participation in the Capitol riot that left Police Officer Brian Sicknick beaten to death with a fire extinguisher.
Investigators with the City Department of Investigation informed their federal counterparts on Jan. 20 that they’d made contact with a Sanitation Department employee who said he could identify Madden based on a photo in a New York Post story about Madden being investigated. According to the feds, the employee told investigators that the man in the video “looks like Madden.”
Sanitation Department brass suspended Madden without pay following news of his involvement, according to a spokesperson.
“Mr. Madden has been suspended without pay since shortly after we learned of these allegations,” said Belinda Mager. “The Department of Sanitation takes this situation very seriously and is prepared to work with law enforcement in any way necessary.”
He is charged with knowingly entering and remaining in a restricted building and disorderly conduct in a restricted building, according to a criminal complaint.
This story first appeared on our sister publication brooklynpaper.com.
