A Pennsylvania man who wildly hit and stabbed at officers guarding the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riots with metal and wooden poles and an officer’s helmet and riot shield is going to prison.
Joshua Lee Atwood, 31, was sentenced to 48 months — or four years — in prison by U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss, a Barack Obama appointee, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced in a press release. Atwood previously pleaded guilty to a felony charge of assaulting officers using a dangerous weapon.
In their sentencing memo requesting 63 months imprisonment, the top of the range, prosecutors said Atwood’s felonious conduct that day was part of a massive riot that almost succeeded in preventing the Electoral College certification of Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential election from being carried out, frustrating the peaceful transition of Presidential power, and throwing the United States into a Constitutional crisis.
They said he helped lead the mob’s last efforts to fight at the Tunnel, the site of the most vicious battle at the Capitol that day.