2 WaPo Journalists Briefly Arrested During Capitol Unrest

(Washington Post photo)

Two Washington Post video journalists tweeted on Wednesday night that they’d been arrested during the unrest at the U.S. Capitol, where a riot by President Donald Trump’s supporters in the afternoon left one woman dead.

“Some days are like this. Body armor, helmet, getting arrested while filming a siege on the Capitol,” Zoeann Murphy tweeted, attaching a video of herself walking ahead of a uniformed officer.

Some days are like this. Body armor, helmet, getting arrested while filming a siege on the Capitol. #journalism pic.twitter.com/i8i6bD4o5q

— Zoeann Murphy (@ZoeannMurphy) January 7, 2021

The second video journalist, Whitney Leaming, retweeted another of Murphy’s tweets that included a video and said, “With @wleaming, still rolling the camera while we were being arrested for filming protests outside the Capitol.”

Following the unprecedented and violent events of Wednesday afternoon, a 6 p.m. ET curfew was put into effect in the nation’s capital. Members of the media, per the curfew, were said to be exempt.

“Our journalists were just doing their jobs and should never have been arrested in the first place,” a spokesperson for the Washington Post said in a statement to TheWrap. “However, we’re pleased that police quickly released them.”