January 6 Rioter Sentenced to 46 Months in Prison for Assaulting an Officer

A January 6 Capitol Hill rioter has been sentenced to 46 months in jail for assaulting a police officer with a dangerous weapon.

The man, 28-year-old Devlyn Thompson, reportedly pled guilty earlier this year to “assaulting, resisting or impeding officers while using a dangerous weapon,” according to the Washington, DC District Attorney’s office. Following the completion of his 46-month prison term, he will have to serve a three-year period of supervised release.

On January 6, Devlyn joined in a mob pushing up against police officers on the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol in the tunnel. The District Attorney’s office said:

Thompson and others in the tunnel yelled obscenities at police and encouraged the continued assault. Thompson was part of a group that threw objects and projectiles at the officers, including flag poles, and grabbed and stole the officers’ riot shields to prevent them from defending themselves.

During the scuffle, Thompson also:

…helped throw a large speaker at the front line of officers, and he later picked up a metal baton from the floor of the tunnel and swung it overhead and downward against the police line in an apparent effort to knock a can of pepper spray from an officer’s hand.

When handing down the sentence, Judge Royce Lamberth of the federal district court in Washington, DC, said that while Thompson may “deserve credit” for cooperating with police and pleading guilty, he could not justify going below the sentence guidelines.

“The violence that happened that day was such a blatant disregard to the institutions of government,” the judge said.

“You didn’t just come up and sock a guy in the face,” Lamberth added. “You’re shoving and pushing…and participating in this riot for hours.”

Another rioter, Scott Fairlamb, previously received 41 months for punching an officer on January 6, while Robert Palmer received a 63-month sentence for “attacking police officers with a fire extinguisher, a wooden plank and a pole,” according to CNN.

More than 700 individuals in nearly all 50 states have been arrested for alleged participation in the Capitol Hill riot on January 6, with “over 220 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement,” said the prosecutor’s office.