Tyler Bradley Dykes, of South Carolina, was an active-duty Marine when he grabbed a police riot shield from the hands of two police officers and used it to push his way through police lines during the attack by a mob of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters. A marine accused of giving a Nazi salute during the deadly Capitol riots has been sentence to nearly five years in jail. Tyler Bradley Dykes, a Marine from South Carolina, seized a police riot shield from two officers and used it to force his way through police lines during the mob attack by supporters of then-President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021. In April, Dykes pleaded guilty to assault charges. He had previously been convicted of a crime related to the 2017 white nationalist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. After serving a six-month sentence in a state prison, Dykes was transferred to federal custody in 2023. US District Judge Beryl Howell sentenced the 26 year old Dykes to four years and nine months in prison, according to the Justice Department. Federal prosecutors had suggested a prison term of five years and three months for Dykes. Prosecutors wrote that Dykes “He directly contributed to some of the most extreme violence on the Capitol’s east front,”. Dykes’ lawyers asked for a two-year prison sentence, stating that Dykes acknowledges his actions on January 6 were “illegal, indefensible and intolerable.” (…) After seizing a riot shield from two officers, Dykes entered the Capitol, holding the shield in one hand and raising his other hand in triumph. Prosecutors also accuse him of using the shield to attack police officers inside the building, causing them to retreat down a hallway. Dykes handed over the shield to an officer upon exiting the Capitol. While Dykes denies performing a Nazi salute on January 6th, prosecutors claim that his open-handed gesture was caught on video. In August 2017, photographs showed Dykes participating in a march through the University of Virginia’s campus on the eve of the Unite the Right rally, alongside white supremacists carrying tiki torches. One photo depicts him extending his right arm in a Nazi salute while holding a lit torch in his left hand.
via themirror: Marine sentenced to nearly 5 years for Nazi salute display during Capitol riot