WASHINGTON — A Donald Trump fan who brought his teenage son along as he assaulted then-D.C. police officer Mike Fanone and another officer at the Capitol on Jan. 6 was sentenced to more than seven years in prison on Tuesday.
Kyle Young, a 38-year-old HVAC worker from Iowa whose lawyer said was he “injected” with lies about the 2020 election and who had asked his Facebook followers to join him at the “stop the steel [sic]” rally, pleaded guilty in May to a felony count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers. Young <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.229977/gov.uscourts.dcd.229977.120.0_2.pdf
” target=”_blank”>admitted that he used a strobe light to disorient police, helped throw a large audio speaker at police, grabbed Fanone’s wrist when the D.C. officer was abducted by the mob, and made contact with another officer abducted by the mob.
Young’s 86-month sentence matched what federal prosecutors sought in the case. They argued that Young took part in the assault at the lower west tunnel where “some of the most barbaric violence” took place on Jan. 6. As discovered by online sleuths, the government argued that Young handed a taser to Danny Rodriguez, a MAGA fanatic who used it to electroshock Fanone in the neck on Jan. 6.
Young, trailed by his 16-year-old son, was right nearby as Rodriguez electroshocked Fanone, extensive video evidence shows.
“When Young spotted Officer Fanone being pulled into the crowd, he purposefully moved toward the attack, and joined at a pivotal moment — restraining Officer Fanone’s wrist by pulling it away from his body seconds after the officer was repeatedly tased and amid shouts of ‘kill him with his own gun,'” federal prosecutors said. “Young’s restraint of Officer Fanone prevented the officer from protecting his service weapon at a time when the officer’s life was in danger and gave Young’s co-defendant Thomas Sibick an opening to forcibly remove Officer Fanone’s badge from his chest and his police radio from a pocket on the front of his vest.”
Fanone’s badge was later buried in the woods behind Sibick’s backyard, the feds have previously said.
Young turned directly to Fanone before his sentencing Tuesday and apologized.
Fanone gave his own victim statement, including telling Young that he hopes that he suffers in prison, leading to a tense moment in the courtroom. After Fanone’s statement, a supporter of the Jan. 6 defendants called Fanone a “piece of s—.” There was a brief stare down between them before the Marshals escorted that man out.
Young had previously written in a letter to Judge Amy Berman Jackson that he was sorry for his actions.
“I still can’t believe I let myself and my son get swept up into such terrible events,” Young wrote in a letter to the judge, adding he was “highly ashamed” and that he’ll “never do anything like that again.”
More than 850 people have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack and more than 350 have pleaded guilty. The longest sentence of 10 years in federal prison went to an ex-NYPD officer who assaulted a D.C. cop with a flagpole and tackled him to the ground, and then lied on the stand about his conduct. There are hundreds more arrests still to come.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
