Three participants in the Capitol riot were convicted by a jury this week of criminal charges stemming in part from their usage of pepper spray against police during the violence, including in the area of the Lower West Terrace, where a substantial amount of the brutal violence unfolded and several officers who have subsequently been outspoken regarding what happened were injured.
The newly convicted rioters are Peter J. Schwartz, Jeffrey Scott Brown, and Markus Maly, who are in their 40s and 50s. It doesn’t seem as though these men knew each other ahead of the riot, but they worked together in using pepper spray against police and were put on trial together on similar charges. Schwartz’s wife, Shelly Stallings, also participated in the violence and previously pleaded guilty rather than going to trial. Schwartz helped kickstart that arm of the violence, stealing pepper spray originating with the D.C. city police department, which was among the law enforcement agencies responding to the scene. According to the Justice Department, Schwartz helped hand out the spray and used some himself. “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,” a press release says. Besides using pepper spray, Schwartz also threw a folding chair at police.
Alongside other interactions that afternoon, Maly also at least briefly helped Schwartz distribute the pepper spray, in addition to using his own chemical irritants against the police. All three of the co-defendants were apparently eventually inside the Lower West Terrace tunnel, where rioters at times used so-called heave-ho motions against cops, moving their bodies in rhythmic unison in attempts to break through police lines. According to Virginia news coverage, Maly spoke during the recently concluded trial, denying that he pepper sprayed police, and his defense also downplayed the assistance he provided Schwartz. The same coverage notes authorities took him into custody after the jury reached its verdict. All three were individually convicted of charges including assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement officers using a dangerous weapon, a felony offense that carries up to 20 years in prison if found guilty. Dates for these newly convicted rioters to be sentenced aren’t yet publicly available.
