Arkansas man who beat officer with flagpole on January 6 sentenced to 4 years in prison

By Jamiel Lynch and Shawna Mizelle, CNN

(CNN) — A 44-year-old Arkansas man who beat a police officer with a flagpole during the January 6 riot at the US Capitol was sentenced Monday to four years in prison.

Peter Stager pleaded guilty to “assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers using a deadly or dangerous weapon,” according to a release from the Department of Justice.

“According to court documents, on Jan. 6, 2021, Stager was part of a large, armed mob that attacked police officers at the Lower West Terrace entrance of the U.S. Capitol building. At 4:27 p.m., police officers had been defending the archway opening to a corridor leading from the Lower West Terrace to the interior of the Capitol building for nearly two hours, advancing and retreating as rioters fought their way into the entrance,” the release said.

CNN has reached out to Stager’s attorney for comment.

The department’s news release says Stager at the time “was positioned toward the bottom of a set of steps that led to the archway, carrying a flagpole with an American flag affixed.”

“Stager watched as co-defendants attacked the police line and dragged a police officer, facedown and headfirst, out of the line and into the crowd of rioters. Once the others had dragged the officer into the crowd, Stager raised the flagpole that he was carrying and beat the downed police officer, striking him at least three times.”

Court records showed that the officer, identified as B.M., lay on his stomach, surrounded, as Stager and other rioters beat him with an upside-down American flag on a flagpole and other objects. B.M. recalled “being struck in the helmet multiple times with objects, and he believes the rioters had attempted to take him as deep into the crowd as possible,” according to one of the judge’s opinions in the trial.

Following the attack, according to the Justice Department, “Stager stood over the officer and yelled, ‘F*** you! F***ing traitor!’ Later in the day, Stager was filmed pointing at the Capitol building and stating, ‘Everybody in there is a disgrace. That entire building is filled with treasonous traitors. Death is the only remedy for what’s in that building.’”

In addition to his 52-month sentence, he was also ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution and complete 36 months of supervised release.

Stager previously told an FBI tipster that he thought he was attacking a member of the violent left-wing group Antifa, even though photos from the scene clearly show the officer wearing a police vest.

He is one of the more than 1,000 individuals who have been arrested for crimes related to the January 6 riot, according to the Department of Justice.

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