The Department of Justice said in a statement Friday that U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell sentenced Dykes, who pleaded guilty in April to two felony counts of assaulting, resisting and obstructing a police officer, to four years and nine months in prison. He was also ordered to pay $22,000 in fines and restitution.
The prosecution sought a sentence of five years and three months, while the defense sought a two-year sentence.
Prosecutors said Dykes had already “displayed a penchant for ideological violence” after being charged and convicted of “violent conduct” at the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville in August 2017. The image shows him making a Nazi salute with one hand and holding a lit torch in the other.
“Tyler abhors his involvement in the attack on the Capitol. He takes full responsibility for his actions,” his lawyers wrote before the sentence, emphasizing his youth at the time of the crime. The sentencing memorandum added that Tyler “will forever regret” his actions during the riot and described him as “a young man who made incredibly poor decisions on January 6, 2021.”
According to a statement from the Department of Justice, Dykes attended a rally for President Donald Trump on the morning of January 6, 2021. He then went to the Capitol and removed snow fences and bicycle barricades marked with “Area Closed” signs, “allowing other rioters to easily enter restricted areas.”
He was near the front of a “violent mob” that dislodged U.S. Capitol Police officers who had positioned themselves near barricades at the top of the East Rotunda steps, from where he celebrated his victory with a Sieg Heil salute, authorities said.
Dykes denied doing so, but prosecutors said the incident was recorded on video, the Associated Press reported.
Prosecutors said Dykes grabbed riot shields from the hands of two Capitol Police officers, leaving them “defenseless and vulnerable” to subsequent pepper spray and other attacks.
He used his shield twice to push back a police line, forcing D.C. officers who were trying to stop rioters from reaching the Senate chamber to retreat further down the hallway.
“While no injuries were reported as a result of Dykes’ assault, he was an active participant in a mob that caused serious injuries to multiple police officers,” prosecutors said.
The FBI arrested Dykes in Virginia on July 17, 2023.
Dykes briefly attended Cornell University before joining the U.S. Marine Corps in the fall of 2017. He was discharged under “dishonorable conditions” in May 2023 for “participating in extremist behavior,” according to prosecutors.
“Dykes’ criminal conduct on January 6th demonstrated that rather than upholding his oath to protect and defend the Constitution, he chose to violate it instead,” prosecutors wrote.
More than 1,400 people have been charged with crimes related to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
