A Marathon man will spend nearly four years in prison for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol attack, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced in a press release Tuesday.
Bryan Bishop, 52, was sentenced to 45 months in prison, three years of supervised release and a $2,000 restitution payment by U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly after pleading guilty to a felony charge of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers during the capitol riots. The maximum sentence for the offense includes up to eight years in prison, a $200,000 fine and three years of supervised release.
Originally arrested on Aug. 7, 2023 with his wife Tonya, 47, also present during the Capitol riots, Bryan Bishop was caught on camera in a crowd of suspects breaching barriers outside the capitol on the day in question. In video footage released by investigative group Sedition Hunters and cross-referenced with public videos, CCTV and police body camera footage, Bishop was identified as an individual labeled the #UnderHelmetSprayer who sprayed a chemical irritant canister at a line of police officers.
“Bishop sprayed a Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officer directly in the face with an orange-colored chemical irritant and then sprayed a second MPD officer by aiming the spray at an upward angle in order to spray under the officer’s face shield,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office press release said.
“After spraying the officers … Bishop entered the U.S. Capitol building at approximately 2:39 p.m.,” the release continued, adding that Bishop spent 17 minutes inside the Capitol “walk(ing) throughout various rooms, including the Rotunda, Statuary Hall and the Statuary Hall Connector.”
Though both Bryan and Tonya Bishop originally pleaded not guilty in November and December 2023, respectively, both changed their tune in recent months.
Bryan Bishop’s guilty plea to the felony charge came in April 2024. In March, Tonya Bishop also pleaded guilty, though to lesser misdemeanor charges of “disorderly and disruptive conduct in a Capitol building or grounds” and “parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building,” each carrying a maximum six-month prison sentence, up to five years of probation and up to a $5,000 fine.
Though Tonya’s original criminal complaint makes no mention of assaults on officers, it details records and location data provided by Google and TracFone used to place a device associated with her email address and TracFone account within the Capitol building at the “known timeframe of the riot.” Video sources also allegedly showed a person with facial features “closely resembling” Tonya’s outside the Capitol building on the date of the riots.
When originally released from the Monroe County Detention Center in Key West in August 2023, Bryan Bishop called his arrest “dramatic.”
On that day, Tonya Bishop told the Weekly, “I hope you’re using the word ‘allegedly,’ because we’re innocent until proven guilty. Due process has not been served. We’re just regular people who want to live our lives quietly.”
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, in the 43 months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,488 individuals have been charged with crimes related to the Capitol breach, including nearly 550 individuals charged with the felony of assaulting or impeding law enforcement.
