Berks man gets nearly 3 years in prison
Alan Byerly says, ‘I didn't go to D.C. to harm anyone'
A Fleetwood man was sentenced Friday to nearly three years in prison for attacking police officers and a member of the news media during the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol.
Alan Byerly pleaded guilty in July to one count of assaulting a law enforcement officer with a dangerous or deadly weapon and one count of striking, beating and wounding on federal property. He has been in federal custody since being charged in July 2021.
Those were two of the eight counts with which he was originally charged. The plea was part of a deal with prosecutors.
U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss sentenced Byerly, 55, to two years and 10 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release, according to The Associated Press.
“I didn’t go to D.C. to harm anyone,” Byerly told the judge during the hearing, according to the AP report.
The attorneys representing Byerly had requested he receive a break on his federal sentence for taking part in the attack on the Capitol, citing his contributions to his community, his willingness to take responsibility for his actions and the low quality of the stun gun he wielded against police officers.
Federal prosecutors, however, were seeking nearly four years of imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release. They said they requested a sentence at least at the top of the stipulated guidelines range because Byerly committed three assaults, two against police officers.
According to The AP, Moss said he believed Byerly is genuinely remorseful for his role in the mob’s “assault on democracy.” The judge said it was clear that Byerly couldn’t have injured anybody with the inexpensive stun gun that he took to the Capitol, but the officers couldn’t have known that given the sound that it made.
“They were clearly frightened by it,” Moss said, the AP reported. “It undoubtedly added to the fear the officers felt that day.”
The case
According to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Washington:
Byerly was among a crowd of rioters who gathered near a line of bicycle racks set up by police to keep the crowd at bay.
Video shows Byerly just behind the bike racks holding what appears to be a stun gun, which he raises with his right hand and activates. Byerly charges at police, some of whom can be heard yelling, “Taser! Taser! Taser!” to warn their fellow officers.
Within seconds, the officers were able to knock the stun gun out of Byerly’s hands. But he kept charging, striking and pushing officers. At one point he tried to take a baton from an officer, knocking that officer to the ground in the process.
Officers were eventually able to restrain Byerly. However, he was able to escape with the help of a fellow rioter.
The attack on police officers was the second assault in which Byerly was involved that day.
Earlier that afternoon, Byerly was caught on footage posted by media outlets. It showed him joining the assault of an Associated Press photographer who was pulled down a flight of stairs, pushed to the ground and dragged toward a mob of protesters.