The US Capitol rioter who beat an officer with a doomed flagpole

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13 minutes ago

Image source, United States Department of Justice

Legend,

Footage shows Peter Francis Stager attacking a deceased police officer with an American flagpole

An Arkansas man who used the pole of an American flag to beat a fallen policeman during the attack on the US Capitol has been sentenced to 52 months in prison.

Peter Francis Stager helped drag the officer up the steps of the Capitol, then punched him “forcefully and repeatedly,” according to prosecutors.

He was also captured on video saying “death is the only cure” for lawmakers inside the building.

More than 1,000 people have been charged in connection with the Capitol riot.

Stager, a 44-year-old truck driver from Conway, Arkansas, pleaded guilty in February to a felony charge of assaulting police with a dangerous weapon.

He was identified six days after the attack by an informant, who told the FBI he recognized Stager from videos posted on Twitter.

A video shows Stager climbing the steps of the Capitol holding a flagpole with the American flag on it.

The officer he attacked was guarding an entrance to the building when he was “pulled – face down and headfirst – down a series of steps and into the violent crowd,” Justice Department prosecutors said.

Stager and other “forced [the officer] in a lying position on the stairs and began to hit forcefully and repeatedly [him] in the head and body with various objects,” they added.

A second video shows Stager saying, “Everyone in there is a traitor. Death is the only cure for what’s in this building,” in apparent reference to members of Congress and law enforcement.

A confidential source told the FBI that Stager claimed he did not know the man was a police officer and believed he was punching a member of the far-left Antifa movement.

Video Caption,

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The officer is, however, in uniform in the video and his Metropolitan Police logo is clearly identifiable.

Government prosecutors previously argued that Stager’s “chilling motivation and brutality of the assault” called for a six-year-and-six-month prison sentence.

Defense attorneys, in a court filing, said their client was “humbled, contrite and extraordinarily remorseful for his actions.”

On Monday, Judge Rudolph Contreras sentenced him to four years and four months.

Of the 1,070 rioters charged in the attack, nearly 600 people received prison sentences. Some 350 people have been charged with assaulting, resisting or obstructing police.

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