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The bloodied face of Kyle Fitzsimons, a butcher from Maine who repeatedly attacked police officers at the Capitol on <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/january-6-capitol-riot/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">Jan. 6</a>, 2021, became one of the more memorable images of the insurrection. A federal judge supplied the last line of the caption for that image Thursday, ordering Fitzsimons to spend more than seven years in prison.

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/09/27/fitzsimons-convicted-jan6-riot/" target=_blank>Fitzsimons, 39</a>, wearing a butcher’s coat with “Kyle” embroidered on the chest and wielding an unstrung archery bow, twice charged into the phalanx of officers protecting the upper West Terrace tunnel on the afternoon of Jan. 6, at one point grabbing the shield strap and wrenching the shoulder of Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell. The officer testified that the pain was so bad he considered using his gun to shoot Fitzsimons before he was freed. He suffered a partially torn rotator cuff and labrum, and was<b> </b>forced to take a medical retirement.

Video also captured Fitzsimons hurling his bow like a spear into the crowd of officers, striking one in the head, and also being involved in a tussle with D.C. Police Sgt. Phuson Nguyen, during which the officer’s gas mask was dislodged and another rioter then poured chemical spray into Nguyen’s face before the mask snapped shut. Nguyen testified that he got knocked down at the same time, and “I thought that was it for me. I thought that’s where I’m going to die.”

Officers recall battling thundering mob in Jan. 6 trial of Maine man

Pushed back from the tunnel, Fitzsimons can be seen on video gathering himself, and then simply running back into the police lines again, fists flailing. During these attacks, Fitzsimons was hit from behind by a crutch being swung by another rioter, surveillance video showed, opening up the bloody head wound which later required staples to close. Fitzsimons’s trial attorney, Natasha Taylor-Smith, said the gory photo made Fitzsimons “the poster boy for Jan. 6.”

Gonell attended the sentencing hearing, and told U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras of the terror he experienced that day facing a relentless mob, and the shoulder injury which still bothers him. Then he pulled out a badge and showed it to the judge. “Kyle Fitzsimons is the reason I have this retirement badge,” Gonell said. “I did not want this. I wanted to earn it. I had seven years left to retirement, and he robbed that from me.” Gonell said he is still fighting with the government over a $21,000 bill for his shoulder surgery.

Prosecutors argued that the injury to Gonell merited an increase in his possible sentence, and also asked Contreras to add more time because Fitzsimons’s actions in obstructing a congressional proceeding amounted to a terrorist act. The government requested a sentence of more than 15 years, noting that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/05/05/jan6-sentence-longest-schwartz/" target=_blank>rioter Peter Schwartz recently received a 14-year term</a>.

But Contreras rejected the government’s proposed sentencing enhancements, and set the guideline range at roughly 10 to 12½ years in prison. Then the judge said he felt the advisory sentencing guidelines “possibly overstate the seriousness of the offense,” and that other defendants who had assaulted police had received sentences of less than 10 years.

Tom Jackman

“The entire orgy of assaultive rage” by Fitzsimons “lasted for only three to four minutes,” Contreras said. He sentenced Fitzsimons to 87 months in prison and three years of supervision upon his release. Prosecutors suggested the judge fine Fitzsimons more than $26,000, the amount he raised online for legal expenses, though he had a public defender and had no legal expenses. Contreras declined.

As of early June, Contreras had handled 19 Jan. 6-related sentencings and gone below the government’s recommendation in every one, according to a Washington Post database.

Before Jan. 6, Fitzsimons openly disputed the results of the 2020 election and in December 2020, he posted a request on the “Lebanon Maine Truth Seekers” Facebook page trying to organize a caravan to D.C. on Jan. 6, the page’s administrator said. He got no takers.

Fitzsimons also left three voice-mail messages for Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) that month, trial testimony showed, one of which started, “So what’s going on with the election fraud?” Fitzsimons continued, according to the voice mail played in court:<b> </b>“I will be down in D.C. on the sixth. I don’t think I’ll see you there. Maybe I will. Maybe I will.”

When Fitzsimons returned to Maine after Jan. 6, he called into the Lebanon Select Board meeting and regaled the board with his experience. “I couldn’t imagine a more peaceful revolution,” Fitzsimons said. He also gave an interview to <a href="https://www.therochestervoice.com/west-lebanon-man-recounts-the-hope-then-terror-he-encountered-on-jan-6-cms-15693" target=_blank>the Rochester Voice</a>, based in New Hampshire, and provided pictures of himself at the Capitol but failed to mention his hand-to-hand combat with police.

Fitzsimons chose a bench trial before Contreras rather than a jury trial. After hearing the evidence, Contreras deliberated for a month before <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/09/27/fitzsimons-convicted-jan6-riot/" target=_blank>convicting Fitzsimons on 11 counts</a>, including seven felonies such as obstruction of an official proceeding, using a dangerous or deadly weapon on officers and inflicting bodily injury on officers. Contreras said he agreed with a defense claim that Fitzsimons could not be clearly seen pulling on Nguyen’s gas mask, but prosecutors argued in their sentencing memo that his hand was part of the mob momentum which resulted in the mask being dislodged.

At sentencing, Fitzsimons spoke briefly, according to the Associated Press. “I am especially conscious of the fulfillment a man derives from his work,” he said, “and I am sorry Sergeant Gonell is no longer part of the Capitol Police Department.” Fitzsimons said he “came to D.C. to witness history and have my views heard,” and that initially “I resisted believing that I had endangered the republic. Now I know it to be true.” Fitzsimons has been in jail since February 2021.

Gonell said afterward he was “taken aback by the fact that he apologized, which is something not a lot of them [defendants] have in the past. I don’t hold any grudges against him.” Gonell said he was satisfied with the seven-year sentence.

Pulitzer Prize for The Washington Post's breaking news coverage of Virginia Tech shooting, 2008

Pulitzer Prize for The Washington Post's investigation of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, 2022

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University of Notre Dame, BA in English and American Studies

Tom Jackman has been covering criminal justice for The Washington Post since 1998 and anchors the True Crime blog. He previously covered crime and courts for the Kansas City Star.

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