By Steve Neavling
An Arkansas truck driver who repeatedly struck a police officer with a flag pole during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol was sentenced Monday to more than four years in federal prison.
Peter Stager, 44, was sentenced to 52 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras, the Associated Press reports.
The sentence was shorter than the six-and-a-half years sought by prosecutors.
Stager struck the Metropolitan Police Department officer at least three times while he was being dragged down the steps of the Capitol. While several other rioters dragged the officer into the mob and assaulted him, Stager screamed profanities at another officer, prosecutors said.
“Every single one of those Capitol law enforcement officers, death is the remedy, that is the only remedy they get,” Stager said on video on Jan. 6, according to prosecutors.
The officer was among more than 100 officers who were injured during the riot.
Stager, of Conway, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of assaulting police with a dangerous weapon in February.
In a court filing, prosecutors said Stager’s actions “were the epitome of disrespect for the law.”
“Stager joined a prolonged, multi-assailant attack on police officers, which resulted in injuries to the officers,” they wrote. “Stager himself wielded a flagpole and used it to strike at a vulnerable officer, who, lying face down in a mob of rioters had no means of defending himself.”
