A 28-year-old man from Washington state was sentenced to 46 months in prison on Monday for assaulting police officers during the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.
According to court documents from the Department of Justice, Devlyn 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 against the violence.”
Police encountered Thompson with a throng of rioters in a tunnel in the Capitol complex. When they deployed pepper spray against the unruly mob, “Thompson 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 and stop the officer from pepper-spraying the rioters,” according to the DOJ.
Thompson also challenged a police officer to a fight, shouting “You wanna fight, let’s fight! One on one.”
Thompson pled guilty to charges of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers while using a dangerous weapon. He’s been imprisoned since August. In a letter to an officer he assaulted, he said his actions were “inexcusable.”
“I’m deeply sorry for the danger that you were put in on behalf of my recklessness,” Thompson wrote.
Thompson’s lawyer argued that he deserved leniency because he’s on the autism spectrum and is extremely suggestible. But U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said autism isn’t an excuse for assaulting a law enforcement officer. Lamberth also pointed out that Thompson had a good job – he made $90,000 a year at a rental property management company – and therefore should have known better.
“The violence that happened that day was such a blatant disregard to the institutions of government,” Lamberth said before issuing the sentence, one of the longest imposed on a January 6th defendant.
CNN explains:
Thompson is the second January 6 rioter to be sentenced for the felony of assaulting an officer with a dangerous weapon. The first, Robert Palmer, received a 63-month sentence for attacking police officers with a fire extinguisher, a wooden plank and a pole. More than 140 other rioters face the same charge.
