A Tennessee man was sentenced on Thursday to seven and a half years in prison for dragging a police officer protecting the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, into an angry pro-Trump crowd that brutally assaulted the officer.
The man, Albuquerque Cosper Head, pleaded guilty in March to assaulting the officer, Michael Fanone, who has emerged as an outspoken advocate for the officers who were subjected to the mob violence on Jan. 6. The sentence was one of the most severe penalties handed down so far in the Justice Department’s investigation of the Capitol attack.
As part of his plea, Mr. Head, a 43-year-old construction worker, admitted that during the violence outside the Capitol, he grabbed Mr. Fanone around the neck and told the crowd around him, “I got one!” Mr. Head then forcibly hauled Mr. Fanone down the Capitol steps and into the mob, where he was beaten, kicked and attacked with a stun gun.
Some in the crowd tried to strip Mr. Fanone of his service weapon as one rioter threatened to kill him with his own gun.