A man from Texas who carried and used a tomahawk ax during the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, has been sentenced to seven years in prison and additional penalties after a jury conviction on a series of serious federal criminal charges.
The defendant was Shane Jenkins, identified by the Justice Department as hailing from Houston, Texas, and during the events of January 6, he was persistent in his aggression. He used the ax he carried against a window in the area of the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace, helping shatter the glass with the end goal of rioters further accessing the building, though he didn’t finish the job on that particular window. (This is per federal claims.) On the other side of it, rioters eventually accessed various office implements that they turned into makeshift weapons against police officers, and Jenkins himself also utilized similar implements of aggression. Per the Justice Department, he hurled an array of objects at police, including a desk drawer.
Jenkins was also among the rioters who also that day attended the large outdoor Trump rally in the city. At the Capitol, he later joined the violence in the Lower West Terrace tunnel that has been well documented to have been some of the worst seen that day. “Jenkins continued to press against officers and force his way into the Tunnel for over ten minutes, leaving only after being pepper-sprayed directly in the face and head multiple times,” a press release from the Justice Department said. Authorities also noted that he was braggadocious around his violent conduct both before and after actually going to the Capitol.
In the time since, he’s been connected to online merchandise sales meant to support criminal defendants from that day, though a defense attorney claimed Jenkins neither owned the website nor made money from sales. Jenkins expressed remorse in the course of his proceedings, distinguishing him from figures like former President Donald Trump himself, who still sticks by his stolen election lies and often expresses general support for January 6 defendants.
