A North Texas gentleman was sentenced to 4 years and 9 months in prison Friday for assaulting regulation enforcement ensuing in bodily injury all through the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot, the U.S. Attorney’s Office environment for the District of Columbia declared.
“His actions and the steps of other individuals disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress convened to verify and count the electoral votes associated to the 2020 presidential election,” the U.S Attorney’s Workplace mentioned in a news launch.
Donald Hazard, 44, of Hurst, was sentenced to 57 months in jail for assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers.
Hazard pleaded guilty to the cost on Feb. 16.
In addition to his jail sentence, U.S. District Courtroom Decide Randolph D. Moss purchased 36 months of supervised launch. Hazard also have to pay back a fantastic of $2,000.
According to courtroom paperwork, Hazard was the sergeant-at-arms of the Patriot Boys of North Texas, a self-described militia.
In preparation for the riot in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, Hazard gathered protecting gear and other provides which includes a armed forces-model helmet, knuckle gloves, goggles, human body armor and pepper spray, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office environment.
”Make absolutely sure you get my experience and everything on your information channel. I want the enemy to know precisely who is coming following them,” Hazard said in a online video that a photographer recorded at the riot.
At close to 2 p.m. that working day, Hazard was standing beneath scaffolding that had been erected about the stairs on the northwest facet of the U.S. Capitol setting up. As Hazard and other rioters tried to climb the steps, they were being achieved by Capitol Law enforcement officers.
An officer approached Hazard in purchase to drive him back. Hazard grabbed the officer as he fell and ongoing to fight. The two fell down the stairs and the officer strike his head and was knocked unconscious. He also experienced accidents on his head, foot and arm — some of which expected operation.
At another position during the riot, Hazard sophisticated towards a line of police officers on the west side of the Capitol with pepper spray in his hand.
At 2:56 p.m., Hazard entered the Capitol creating and was within for about five minutes. Hazard posted “selfie-style” videos inside and outdoors of the Capitol creating and built statements together with, “We’re below at the nation’s capitol and we’re storming it. We’re having the Capitol. . . This is The us little one.”
Hazard was arrested on Dec. 13, 2021.
This case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Department of Justice Nationwide Stability Division’s Counterterrorism Section. The U.S. Attorney’s Business office for the Northern District of Texas assisted in the circumstance.
The case was investigated by the Fort Value Resident Agency of the FBI’s Dallas Area Workplace together with the FBI’s Washington Industry Workplace. The Texas Division of Community Security, the Hurst Law enforcement Office, the Metropolitan Law enforcement Department, and the U.S. Capitol Police also assisted.
In the 28 months due to the fact Jan. 6, a lot more than 1,000 individuals have been arrested in approximately all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, which includes far more than 320 people billed with assaulting or impeding regulation enforcement, in accordance to the U.S. Attorney’s Office environment District of Columbia.
The investigation remains ongoing.