WASHINGTON (AP) — A former police officer who stormed the U.S. Capitol with fellow members of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group was sentenced on Wednesday to 14 months in jail for becoming a member of the Jan. 6, 2021, assault by a mob of Donald Trump supporters, court docket data present.
Nathaniel Tuck and different Proud Boys, together with his father, had been among the many first wave of rioters who entered Capitol grounds after the mob broke by police traces, in line with prosecutors.
Tuck, 32, of Apopka, Florida, pushed previous law enforcement officials to enter the Capitol and berated officers who had been making an attempt to carry off the gang. He later posed with different Proud Boys members for a celebratory {photograph} exterior the Capitol.
“Nathaniel Tuck ready for and took these actions as a part of a hand-selected group of Proud Boys members that brazenly mentioned its plans for violence on the Capitol and intention to confront police who would possibly attempt to stand of their approach,” prosecutors wrote in a court docket submitting.
U.S. District Decide Timothy Kelly allowed Tuck to stay free till he should report back to jail and start serving his 14-month sentence. The decide additionally ordered him to pay a $2,000 nice and $2,000 in restitution, court docket data present.
Greater than 1,500 individuals have been charged with Capitol riot-related crimes. Dozens of them had been leaders, members and associates of the Proud Boys.
The president-elect has repeatedly vowed to pardon Capitol rioters as soon as he returns to the White Home later this month. However he hasn’t specified whether or not pardons would lengthen to rioters convicted of partaking in violence or destruction.
Tuck pleaded responsible in September to a felony cost of obstructing legislation enforcement throughout a civil dysfunction and a misdemeanor cost of getting into and remaining in a restricted space.
Prosecutors beneficial a two-year jail sentence for Tuck, who was a member of the Proud Boys’ “House Coast” chapter primarily based in central Florida.
From 2012 to 2020, Nathaniel Tuck served as a police officer, in Longwood, Florida, after which in Apopka. He joined the Proud Boys in 2018, prosecutors stated.
Tuck informed a federal probation officer that he stop his police job in October 2020 “due to the entire George Floyd factor,” in line with prosecutors.
Tuck was charged along with his father, Kevin, who’s scheduled to be sentenced subsequent Tuesday. Kevin Tuck, 52, was a Proud Boys member and employed as a police officer in Windermere, Florida, on the time of the riot. The elder Tuck pleaded responsible to a misdemeanor.
The Tucks traveled to Washington, D.C., and attacked the Capitol with different Proud Boys members who even have been convicted of Jan. 6 prices.
Protection legal professional William Shipley stated Nathaniel Tuck did not have interaction in any violence or injury any property on the Capitol.
“He primarily remained a singular member of a a lot bigger group of people, and largely noticed the conduct of others,” Shipley wrote.
The Proud Boys was a bunch greatest recognized for avenue fights with anti-fascist activists when Trump infamously informed the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” throughout his first debate in 2020 with then-presidential candidate Joe Biden.
The group’s former prime chief, Enrique Tarrio, and three of his lieutenants had been convicted of seditious conspiracy for a violent plot to cease the peaceable switch of presidential energy from Trump to Biden after the 2020 election. Tarrio is serving a 22-year prison sentence, the longest of any Capitol riot case.
