NY man who bear-sprayed officers sentenced in Jan. 6 case

A New York man who used bear spray on Capitol Police officers during the Jan. 6 Capitol riots was sentenced Monday to three years in prison, the Justice Department announced.

Edward Rodriguez pleaded guilty to assaulting a police officer in May.

Video from the Jan. 6 riots showed Rodriguez spraying multiple police officer with the bear mace, prosecutors said. He later spoke to an independent reporter at the Capitol.

“Here in America, we fight back,” he said, according to prosecutors. “We will never surrender to dictatorship, corruption, communism, or socialism. We the people will never put up with their bullshit.”

Court documents claim that the FBI was made aware of the video through a group of Reddit users that aggregated video from the insurrection and identified violent rioters.

Rodriguez was also sentenced to three years of probation following his incarceration.

More than 1,200 people have been charged with crimes related to the Jan. 6 riots, the Justice Department said, including more than 400 for assaulting police officers.