An Orange County man is facing prison time for assaulting officers during the Jan. 6 Capitol attack in 2021.
On Friday, Jeffrey Scott Brown, 56, of Santa Ana, was sentenced to 54 months in prison for multiple charges including assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement officers using a dangerous weapon, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly/dangerous weapon, and more.
Brown along with two co-defendants — Peter J. Schwartz, 49, and Markus Maly, 48, — were all found guilty at a trial on December 7, 2022.
Brown was in the Lower West Terrace area of the Capitol Building when was handed a pepper spray canister by Schwartz who had stolen it from a Metropolitan police duffle bag, according to court documents.
As crowds became heavy near a police line, Brown allegedly dove toward the front of the line and used the pepper spray against the officers.
During the riot, Schwartz had thrown a folding chair at officers and later claimed to a friend that he “started a riot” by “throwing the first chair,” court documents said.
Schwartz then “stole MPD duffle bags full of O.C. spray canisters, which he distributed to other members of the mob, including his wife, so that they could deploy them against the police,” officials said. “Wielding a large MK-46 canister and carrying a wooden tire thumper, Schwartz began indiscriminately spraying O.C. spray at any retreating police officers he could find. Around the same time, defendant Maly pushed through the crowd toward a group of police officers trying to escape up onto the inaugural stage and sprayed with his own O.C. canister.”
All three men were convicted of multiple charges for their involvement in the breach.
Since the 2021 Capitol attacks, over 1,000 people have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach, said the U.S. District Attorney’s Office.
The investigation remains ongoing. Anyone with information can call 1-800-225-5324 or submit a tip online at tips.fbi.gov.