Man who dragged officer into Jan. 6 mob gets more than 7 years

A Tennessee man who dragged a police officer into a mob of rioters, initiating one of the most harrowing acts of violence during the U.S. Capitol attack, was sentenced on Thursday to more than seven years in prison.

Albuquerque Cosper Head declined to address the court before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced him to seven years and six months of imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release. The judge said Head was responsible for “some of the darkest acts committed on one of our nation’s darkest days.”

Head’s prison sentence is six months shy of the statutory maximum in his case. It’s also the second-longest so far among hundreds of cases arising from the Capitol siege on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the building as Congress prepared to certify President Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

“The dark shadow of tyranny unfortunately has not gone away,” Jackson said. “There are people who are still disseminating the lie that the election was stolen. They’re doing it today. And the people who are stoking that anger for their own selfish purposes, they need to think about the havoc they’ve wreaked, the lives they’ve ruined.”

Head engaged in some of the most barbaric violence during the Capitol riot, repeatedly assaulting police officers who were guarding a tunnel on the Lower West Terrace, according to prosecutors.

Metropolitan Police Department Officer Michael Fanone was on the front lines of the battle for control of the tunnel entrance when Head grabbed him. Head yelled “I’ve got one!” as he wrapped his arms around Fanone’s neck and dragged him into the crowd outside the tunnel, prosecutors said.

“He was your prey. He was your trophy,” Jackson told Head, 43.

Head restrained Fanone while other rioters beat and shocked the officer with a stun gun at the base of his skull. Fanone lost consciousness during the assault, which his body camera captured on video.

“Although Head was separated from Officer Fanone in the moments that followed, Head would have been able to hear the sound of the taser being activated again, Officer Fanone’s screams of agony, and the yells from another rioter to ‘Kill him with his own gun!’” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

During Thursday’s sentencing hearing, Fanone said the attack gave him a heart attack and a traumatic brain injury and ultimately cost him his career. He has written a book about his Jan. 6 experience and testified at a hearing held by the House committee investigating the insurrection.