Capitol Rioter Who Sprayed Police With Mace Gets 2 Years In Prison

A man who prosecutors said was seen “smiling” while indiscriminately spraying police officers in the face with pepper spray during the 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol was sentenced on Monday to two and a half years in federal prison.

Israel James Easterday, of Munfordville, Kentucky, was sentenced to 30 months in prison, 500 hours of community service and a $2,000 fine, after being found guilty last October of six felonies and three misdemeanors by a jury, the Justice Department announced.

Easterday had traveled to Washington, D.C. to take part in protests because he believed that the results of the 2020 presidential election, in which Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump, were the result of government corruption, federal prosecutors said.

Photos taken during the melee and submitted with Easterday’s charging documents show him wearing a black beanie with the logo “I ❤️ TRUMP” and carrying a Confederate battle flag.

Easterday forced his way inside the Capitol with a mob after spraying a Capitol police officer in the face with pepper spray “at point-blank range,” according to DOJ. The injured officer collapsed and temporarily lost consciousness, resulting in his baton being stolen by another rioter. His vision was compromised for hours after he was sprayed, the Justice Department said.

“Soon thereafter, an unknown rioter handed Easterday a second can of pepper spray, which Easterday—smiling—used to indiscriminately spray another small group of officers, hitting at least one of them in the face. That officer, too, was temporarily incapacitated and suffered pain for hours,” prosecutors said in Monday’s release.

Easterday was identified after federal authorities searched publicly available photos and found pictures of him wearing the same beanie while again holding a Confederate flag, according to the charging documents.

He had been planning to go to the Bahamas with his fiancée to hand out free Bibles as part of missionary work when he was arrested, Easterday’s attorneys said in a court plea requesting his release.

Easterday is “a very young man from an extremely sheltered background” who posed no public threat, the lawyers told the court.

Easterday was raised Amish and was his family’s primary cow-milker on their farm until he left home at the age of 18, they said.

“He wore simple clothes with a hat and suspenders, and was home-schooled until he was 15 years old, when he began working full time on his family’s farm,” they said. “At no point after January 6 did he glorify what happened on that date, or otherwise espouse violence.”

Easterday canceled his missionary work and promptly turned himself in after learning about his outstanding arrest warrant, they said.

His attorney, Geremy Kamens, declined comment when reached by HuffPost on Tuesday.

More than 1,385 people have been charged for crimes related to the Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol, the Justice Department said Monday. Efforts to identify and locate insurrectionists captured in videos and photos that day remain ongoing.