David Michael Camden at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (U.S. Attorney’s Office).
A Three Percenters flag-waving Jan. 6 rioter from Arkansas who admitted to assaulting police guarding the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, is going to prison.
David Michael Camden, 45, was sentenced on Friday to one year and a day in prison by U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, a Barack Obama appointee, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced in a press release. He pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement.
In their sentencing memo asking the court to sentence Camden to 27 months of incarceration — or over 2 years — the recommended sentence, prosecutors said he violently pushed a bicycle rack barricade into police officers as he tried to breach the police line and advance on Capitol grounds and was sprayed by police mace.
“But Camden was not deterred by officers’ efforts,” they wrote. “Instead, Camden moved to another location on the West front and sprayed a fire extinguisher toward police officers. A 27-month sentence reflects the gravity of Camden’s conduct, but also acknowledges his early admission of guilt.”
In his sentencing memo asking for home detention, Camden’s lawyer Charles Burnham said the charge arose from a brief struggle that police quickly repelled, and police were not injured.
He said the Army veteran who later became homeless and addicted to drugs, at times living under bridges, has been sober for 20 years, is a successful professional and has an extraordinary record of volunteerism.
“Mr. Camden is deeply remorseful for his actions. He took responsibility at the earliest possible time,” Burnham wrote. “He has expressed sincere remorse to friends and coworkers and authored a letter of apology to the police. For all of these reasons and those explained below, we ask the Court to consider a sentence of home detention of appropriate length with community service and a substantial fine.”
As Law&Crime reported in July, body camera footage showed that about 20 minutes after rioters first breached a restricted area, Camden screamed at officers before pushing a bike rack barricade into them. Close to 2:11 p.m. on Jan. 6, open-source footage and footage culled from U.S. Capitol Police surveillance cameras showed Camden deploying a fire extinguisher at police before next moving to the Capitol’s west front. From there, Camden ascended a media tower and, once atop it, waved a Three Percenters flag triumphantly, prosecutors said.
Many Three Percenters were at the Capitol on Jan. 6, and evidence that emerged in Justice Department prosecutions of individuals associated with the anti-government pro-militia movement indicated connections and relationships between their adherents and members of the far right Oath Keepers and the “Western chauvinist” Proud Boys group. Several senior leaders of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 were tried and convicted of seditious conspiracy and remain imprisoned.
After Jan. 6, internet sleuths identified Camden with the moniker #Littlemansprayer. They told the FBI that they believed they saw Camden in a recorded interview with another alleged rioter on Jan. 5. In the interview, Camden didn’t give his name but described himself as a native of Nebraska who currently lived in Washington state. He also said he was an Army veteran and had previously received treatment from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
With this information, prosecutors said the FBI tracked Camden down and then cross-referenced details culled from another interview with a person who knew Camden personally and identified him in photos from Jan. 6.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks and monitors hate and extremist groups in the U.S., describes the Three Percenters’ ideology in-depth and notes that its adherents engage in paramilitary training and have repeatedly provoked violence against law enforcement as well as private citizens.
Brandi Buchman contributed to this report.
