A Capitol rioter who led a mob that chased police officer Eugene Goodman up a flight of stairs during the January 6 insurrection has been sentenced to five years in prison.
Construction worker Douglas Jensen, of Iowa, was one of the first 10 rioters to enter the US Capitol and came dangerously close to breaching the Senate chamber, Department of Justice prosecutors said.
“You, by your own actions, put yourself at the forefront of that mob,” Judge Timothy Kelly said as he handed down the sentence, according to CNN.
“You were not a hero and not a patriot, but you were not a monster either.”
Jensen was also sentenced to 36 months of supervised release after his prison term and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution.
The QAnon believer was found guilty of seven felony counts of civil disorder and assaulting a police officer at a jury trial in September.
Addressing the judge in court, Jensen said he wanted to go back to his “normal” family life prior to being consumed by politics and conspiracy theories.
“I can’t change my past, I can just look to the future,” he said, according to NBC News.
Jensen’s lawyer Christopher Davis wrote in a court filing that his client had come to the Capitol on January 6 in the belief that it would be a “day of reckoning” for corrupt politicians.
“He believed the ‘storm’ had arrived and that corrupt politicians were going to be arrested,” Mr Davis wrote.
Jensen has been in pre-trial custody for nearly two years, and had moved on from his QAnon beliefs, his lawyer said.
During the riot, Mr Goodman was pursued by a group up a staircase just metres away from where lawmakers were certifying the results of the 2020 presidential elections.
Surveillance footage captured Mr Goodman diverting the rioters away from the open Senate chamber.
“What would have happened if the group you led that day turned the other way,” Judge Kelly told Jensen, according to CNN.
The judge said the rioters had “snapped” the tradition of the peaceful transfer of power.
“I wish I could say I had evidence you understood this cannot be repeated.”
US Capitol Police Inspector Tom Loyd wrote in a court filing that had it not been for Mr Goodman’s quick-thinking “there would have been tremendous bloodshed”.
A House committee investigating the riot is preparing to release its final report next week.
