Jan. 6 rioter accused of giving Nazi salute sentenced to almost 5 years

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A Marine who allegedly gave a Nazi salute during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection has been sentenced to almost five years in prison for his role in the Capitol riot.

Tyler Bradley Dykes, 26, of Bluffton, S.C., grabbed a riot shield from Capitol police officers during the insurrection, which he then used to “obstruct and intimidate” officers at the scene, according to prosecutors. He was serving in the Marines at the time, prosecutors added.

U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell sentenced Dykes — who pleaded guilty to two felony counts of assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers in April — to four years and nine months in prison, the Department of Justice said in a statement Friday. He was also ordered to pay $22,000 in fines and restitution.

Prosecutors had recommended a sentence of five years and three months, while the defense had requested a sentence of two years.

Dykes had already “demonstrated his penchant for ideological violence,” having been charged and convicted of “felonious conduct” at a deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in August 2017, prosecutors said. An image showed him appearing to make a Nazi salute with one hand while carrying a lit torch with the other.

“Tyler hates his involvement in the Capitol riot. He takes complete responsibility for his actions,” his lawyers wrote ahead of his sentencing, emphasizing his young age at the time of the offenses. In their sentencing memorandum, they added that Dykes would “forever regret” his conduct in the riot, and described him as “a young man who made incredibly poor decisions on January 6, 2021.”

Dykes attended President Donald Trump’s rally on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, according to a Department of Justice statement. He then went to the Capitol, where he removed snow fencing and bicycle barricades with “AREA CLOSED” signs, “allowing other rioters to more easily enter the restricted area.”

He was near the front of a “violent mob” that forced U.S. Capitol police officers from their positions near the barricades up the East Rotunda steps. From there, he celebrated by performing the Sieg Heil salute, the department said.

Dykes denied making the gesture but prosecutors said the incident was caught on video, the Associated Press reported.

Dykes grabbed the riot shield from the hands of two Capitol police officers, leaving them “exposed and vulnerable” to pepper spray and other attacks that followed, prosecutors said.

He twice used the shield to push his way through police lines, including forcing D.C. police officers, who were trying to prevent rioters from getting closer to the Senate, to retreat further down a hallway.

“Although Dykes’s assaults did not result in known injuries, Dykes was an active participant in a violent mob that left numerous officers seriously injured,” according to prosecutors.

The FBI arrested Dykes in Virginia on July 17, 2023.

Dykes briefly attended Cornell University in fall 2017 before joining the United States Marine Corps. He was discharged in May 2023 “under other than honorable conditions” for “participating in extremist behavior,” prosecutors said.

“Rather than honor his oath to protect and defend the Constitution, Dykes’s criminal activity on January 6 shows he was instead choosing to violate it,” prosecutors wrote.

More than 1,400 people have been charges with crimes related to the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol.