The Indiana guy who dropped a loaded gun during the Capitol riot, which he later falsely reported as stolen because of claimed concerns about antifa using the weapon for a murder — and who spoke after investigators found him of targeting Nancy Pelosi — got five years on Friday.
The weapon he lost was a Taurus revolver loaded with three shotgun shells and two hollow point bullets, authorities said. Mark Mazza later admitted he also had a second — also loaded — gun with him while at the Capitol. At the Capitol, Mazza was involved in fighting in the Lower West Terrace tunnel, which — as its name suggests — is a perceptibly claustrophobia-inducing area where groups of officers fought off waves of participants in the mob that afternoon. Exemplifying the brute force the rioters employed, some even engaged in so-called heave-ho motions, in which they moved their bodies back and forth roughly in unison to try and force their way through police lines. Around an hour after the building itself was first breached by rioters elsewhere, Mazza helped fellow rioters in the tunnel access police, who they assaulted. He held open a door, and riot participants used “flag poles, batons, sticks and stolen law enforcement shields” against police, authorities note.
He also hit police with a stolen baton and engaged in the heave-ho maneuvers. Mazza opted for a plea deal, admitting to assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers with a dangerous weapon and carrying a pistol without a license, and besides his forthcoming stint in jail, he also owes $2,150 in restitution. Per reporter Ryan Reilly, Mazza complained to federal Judge James Boasberg, who delivered the sentence, that he is “not quite the monster that the prosecution has described me as.” He also claimed he had the guns for self-defense. Boasberg expressed shock at the nature of Mazza’s actions at the Capitol — which Mazza, like other defendants, tied in part to a so-called “mob mentality.” “I don’t know what on earth you were thinking about in that tunnel that day,” Boasberg said. “You weren’t one of the worst, I can see that… but the mob doesn’t accomplish what it accomplished that day without numbers.”
The judge also noted that Mazza could have just left, but the “officers didn’t have that out. They were there protecting [the] Capitol.” Last year, Mazza suggested to investigators he was interested in finding and having a so-called talk with Pelosi when in D.C. “I was glad I didn’t, because you’d be here for another reason,” he ominously added. Footage revealed by the House committee investigating the Capitol riot showing Pelosi in contact with officials including the Virginia governor (for National Guard assistance) during the violence also shows the House Speaker identifying her main concern as the personal safety of people at the Capitol. “The concern we have is about personal safety — it just transcends everything,” she said.
Featured Image (edited): via Blink o’fanaye on Flickr and available under a Creative Commons License
