WASHINGTON (AP) — A professional butcher whose bloody, wild-eyed face became one of the most memorable images of the U.S. Capitol riot was sentenced Thursday to…
A professional butcher whose bloody, wild-eyed face became one of the most memorable images of the U.S. Capitol riot was sentenced Thursday to more than seven years in prison for hurling a bow like a spear at police and attacking several other officers.
Kyle Fitzsimons, 39, of Maine, was wearing a white butcher’s coat embroidered with his first name when he separately assaulted at least five officers near a tunnel as police desperately tried to protect an entrance to the Capitol from the angry mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters, prosecutors said.
The federal judge who sentenced Fitzsimons also convicted him of 11 charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras heard testimony without a jury at a bench trial for Fitzsimons last September.
The judge said Fitzsimons attacked police in a “burst of frenzied fury” and unleashed an “orgy of assaultive rage” that lasted a few minutes.
“He was part of the most violent clashes that day,” Contreras said.
Fitzsimons apologized to the officers he attacked, the court, his family and “anyone else I’ve disappointed by my conduct.” He said he initially resisted the idea that he posed a “danger to the republic.”
“But now I know it to be true,” he told the judge before learning his sentence.
Fitzsimons, was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. He has been in custody since February 2021, and will get credit for the two years and five months he already has served in jail.
Fitzsimons is among more than 1,000 people who have been charged with federal crimes in the riot that left more than 100 police officers injured and delayed the certification of President Joe Biden’s election victory over Trump. More than 560 people have been sentenced for Jan. 6-related crimes, with over half receiving terms of imprisonment.
An 18-year prison term for Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes is the longest sentence handed down so far in the Jan. 6 attack, though prosecutors indicated Wednesday that they are appealing the sentences for Rhodes and other Oath Keepers after they were given lighter punishments than prosecutors had sought.
