WASHINGTON – A Washington, D.C. federal judge handed down a prison sentence of more than three years to a South Florida man who pleaded guilty to attacking police officers during the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol, officials announced Tuesday.
In addition to a 45-month prison sentence, Bryan Roger Bishop, 52, of Marathon, will be on 36 months of supervised release and will have to pay $2,000 in restitution. On April 30, he pleaded guilty to a single count of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers.
Recommended Videos
He could have spent eight years behind bars.
His wife, Tonya Bishop, 47, also participated in the riot as they and other supporters of former President Donald Trump attempted to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.
She pleaded guilty in March to misdemeanor charges of disorderly or disruptive conduct and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building, court documents show.
Both were arrested in Marathon, where they had been living offshore in a boat, last August.
Prosecutors said Bryan Bishop was seen spraying a Washington, D.C. police officer “directly in the face” with an “orange-colored chemical irritant.”
He then sprayed another officer “by aiming the spray at an upward angle in order to spray under the officer’s face shield,” they said.
For that, open-source websites dubbed Bishop the “#UnderHelmetSprayer.”
Prosecutors said Bishop also spent 17 minutes in the Capitol after he and other rioters broke through police lines.
Authorities said he was identified through photos posted online by the FBI and through a check of photos from driver’s licenses from Florida, Minnesota and Idaho, along with a passport application.
Officials didn’t specify where he’ll serve out his sentence. Bishop was not yet listed in federal prison records as of Tuesday afternoon.
Nearly 1,500 people have been charged in connection with the Capitol attack.