Bryan Roger Bishop (U.S. Attorney’s Office).
A Florida man who admitted to spraying a chemical irritant at police guarding the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riots and told a reporter his arrest was “a bit overdramatic” has been ordered to prison.
Bryan Roger Bishop, 52, was sentenced on Tuesday to 45 months in prison followed by 36 months of supervised release, and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced in a news release.
Bishop pleaded guilty on April 30 to a charge of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers.
As Law&Crime previously reported, he was at the Capitol in his olive-colored knit cap, tan neck gaiter covering his face, and a gray jacket. He emerged from the crowd of rioters and sprayed an orange-colored chemical irritant at a line of officers, according to a statement of facts.
He hit one Metropolitan Police Department officer in the face and angled a second line of spray upward under a second officer’s face shield, court documents said. The spray temporarily blinded the officer and forced him off the line as he fought through the crowd with his eyes and face burning and was led away by another officer.
The assault earned Bishop the nickname “UnderHelmetSprayer,” court documents said.
After the attack, Bishop went into the Capitol building for about 17 minutes. Inside, Bishop appeared to ask for directions several times and checked his cellphone, court documents said.
When the FBI arrested Bishop and his wife, Tonya Bishop, at Marathon City Marina in the Florida Keys on Aug. 8, 2023, he told local ABC affiliate WPLG media that his arrest was “a bit overdramatic.”
“They came in with a tactical team and drones and all kinds of s—,” Bishop told the outlet.
Tonya Bishop was sentenced in July to 24 months of probation in the case after pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and picketing in a Capitol building, court documents show.
She told her incarcerated son in a recorded phone call two days before the insurrection that she planned to go to Washington, court documents said.
“On the 6th, Trump has called The Patriots together,” she said, according to court documents. “A bunch of us are headed over there.”
In her knit hat, she went into the Capitol that day at 2:19 p.m. through the Senate Wing doors carrying flags on flagpoles. She was inside the building for nearly 30 minutes.
In the 43 months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,488 people have been charged for crimes related to the breach, authorities said.
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