The Capitol rioter who grabbed former Metropolitan Police Division officer Mike Fanone and dragged him into the mob, the place he was grievously injured, was sentenced Thursday in federal court docket to 90 months, or 7 1/2 years, behind bars.
Prosecutors had sought an eight-year sentence for Tennessee resident Albuquerque Cosper Head. Nonetheless, his punishment continues to be one of many harshest to be handed right down to any rioter up to now. Fanone left legislation enforcement the yr after the Jan. 6, 2021, assault and has turn out to be probably the most seen figures advocating for justice.
Requested for a response to the sentence, Fanone informed HuffPost, “Like an actual American, I settle for the sentence handed down by the court docket.”
The longest sentence handed right down to any rioters has been 10 years, given to a retired New York police officer who assaulted one other legislation enforcement official.
Head agreed to a deal the place he pleaded responsible to at least one felony depend of assaulting a police officer. Prosecutors say he wrapped his arm round Fanone’s neck as officers tried to push rioters again via an archway main into the Capitol and yelled, “I received one!” whereas pulling Fanone deeper into the mob.
Members of the group beat Fanone and pinned him down, seizing his police radio and badge. One individual threatened to kill him along with his service weapon. Fanone was tased repeatedly on the base of his cranium by rioter Daniel Rodriguez, who was sentenced in September to barely much less time than Head ― 86 months.
The mob backed off after Fanone yelled, “I received children!” He blacked out and regained consciousness to search out his associate and others, making an attempt to make sure he was alright.
Fanone ended up struggling a coronary heart assault and a traumatic mind damage.
The general public highlight that discovered him within the wake of the riot eventually made keeping his job untenable, he defined in interviews to advertise a memoir he launched earlier this month.
“I might commerce all this consideration to return to policing,” Fanone stated in court docket Thursday, per ABC News. “However I can’t try this. And the catalyst for the lack of my profession and the struggling that I’ve endured up to now 18 months is Albuquerque Head.”
Decide Amy Berman Jackson identified the irony that Fanone was crushed within the crowd with a Blue Lives Matter flag, NBC News reported.
“Folks want to know that they’ll’t do that, or something like this, once more. They’ll’t attempt to pressure their will on the American individuals as soon as the American individuals have already spoken on the poll field. That’s the alternative of democracy. It’s tyranny,” the decide stated, per NBC.
Andy Campbell contributed to this report.