Wild-eyed butcher sentenced to seven years in prison on January 6 charges

Man hurled a bow like a spear at police officer on day of Capitol insurrection

Kyle Fitzsimons was wearing a white butcher’s coat embroidered with his first name when he separately assaulted at least five officers. Photo: FBI

A professional butcher whose bloody, wild-eyed face became one of the most memorable images of the US Capitol riot, was sentenced to more than seven years in prison for hurling a bow like a spear at police and attacking several other officers.

Kyle Fitzsimons, 39, of Maine, was wearing a white butcher’s coat embroidered with his first name when he separately assaulted at least five officers near a tunnel as police desperately tried to protect an entrance to the Capitol from the angry mob of Donald Trump supporters, prosecutors said.

Fitzsimons apologised to the officers he attacked, the court, his family and “anyone else I've disappointed by my conduct”.

He said he initially resisted the idea that he posed a “danger to the republic”.

“But now I know it to be true,” he told the judge before learning his sentence.

Fitzsimons joined the mob’s attack on police at the Lower West Terrace tunnel entrance, according to prosecutors.

He threw his bow like a spear, hitting a Metropolitan Police Department officer’s head. He repeatedly swiped at a police detective’s face, trying to dislodge his gas mask.

“He is lucky I made a choice not to use lethal force on him, but I came very close to,” the officer wrote in a victim impact statement.

As he retreated, Fitzsimons had blood on his face from a blow to his head. Turning his back to the tunnel, he stared “proudly, ferally, and wild-eyed at the angry mob”, prosecutors said in a court filing.