Credit: Court filing
A former Levittown woman was arrested Friday by federal authorities in connection with the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Dawn Bancroft, a Doylestown-area resident who government records appear to showed owned a home in Middletown Township’s Levittown section for about a decade, and Diana Santos-Smith, whose hometown was not immediately known, were both charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, knowingly engaging in disorderly or disruptive conduct in any restricted building or grounds, and violent entry and disorderly conduct on U.S. Capitol grounds, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday by federal authorities.
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The U.S. Department of Justice said both women were arrested Friday in the region but did not state exactly where.
Bancroft, according to social media and the Doylestown Intelligencer, operates a Crossfit gym in Central Bucks County. She did not answer a call to her phone Friday night.
The case is one of dozens that have led to charges or are being probed in connection to the Wednesday, January 6 insurrection where a large group tried to stop the Congress from finalizing Joe Biden’s election 2020 win after being misled that President Donald Trump actually won the election. Media reports and video from the attack and riot that involved several deaths show people attacking police officers and calling for the murder Vice President Mike Pence, who was one of Trump’s closest political allies but refused to violate the U.S. Constitution to overturn the election results.
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The FBI began looking into the women after receiving a tip on January 12 that showed an alleged video of Bancroft at the U.S. Capitol.
“We broke into the Capitol … we got inside, we did our part,” Bancroft allegedly said in a video.
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“We were looking for Nancy to shoot her in the friggin’ brain but we didn’t find her,” she reportedly added.
A federal agent said they believed Bancroft was speaking of Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and the third in the presidential line of succession.
Santos-Smith, according to a criminal complaint, told federal agents that she attended former President Trump’s rally before the insurrection. She then allegedly misled agents by saying she never entered the Capitol, which was captured on video.
Credit: Matt Hecht
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Santos-Smith finally stated that she and Bancroft went to the Capitol to protest but did not have a plan to enter the building, but it is where they ended up going after climbing over a wall and through scaffolding.
Santos-Smith told federal agents she heard people saying “they’re letting us in.”
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Santos-Smith and Bancroft entered the Capitol through a broken window and left after 30 second to a minute, she told agents.
Last week, FBI agents spoke with Bancroft, according to court papers, and she said she and Santos-Smith followed others into the Capitol. She said she recorded a video that was sent to her children, but she later instructed them to delete it.
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The criminal complaint against both women features pictures of what appears to be them at the Capitol.
Two weeks ago, LevittownNow.com broke the news that FBI agents had been in Bucks County speaking to several people about the insurrection.
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Editor’s Note: All individuals arrested or charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty. The story was compiled using information from police and public court documents.
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