Jan. 6 rioter who beat cop with American flag pole and gave Nazi salute sentenced

Another Jan. 6 attacker was sent to prison on Tuesday, CBS News reporter Scott MacFarlane reported on Twitter.

Matthew Beddingfield showed up at the U.S. Capitol in 2021, swinging a flag pole at cops trying to hold back the crowds and throwing Nazi salutes.

According to the federal indictment: "Beddingfield was on Capitol grounds using a flagpole with the Star-Spangled Banner still attached to strike police officers who were attempting to protect the Capitol and those inside. After attacking the police officers with the flagpole, Beddingfield threw a piece of the broken flagpole at another officer. Beddingfield then faced the Capitol and made a gesture (one that is commonly associated with the Nazis), extending his arm and hand forward and at an upward angle."

The officer he attacked was Aquilino Gonell, who has spoken out about his experience that day. The officer resigned from the force last year citing his trauma. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols allowed Gonell to speak ahead of sentencing

Reading his victim-impact statement, Gonell explained how Beddingfield “desecrated the American flag by using it as a weapon” against the officers, The Charlotte News Observer reported. He then turned a wooden post into a spear to stab Gonell in his thighs and groin, inflicting “excruciating pain.”

“The vicious hits by him kept coming until his flagpole bended (sic), nearly breaking (from) so many strikes he did on us,” Gonell wrote in the statement.

Beddingfield pleaded guilty on July 7 and was sentenced Tuesday.

Federal prosecutors had asked for a 42-month prison sentence, but the judge sent him to prison for 38 months.

Beddingfield was already out on bail when he went to the Capitol on Jan. 6. He was accused of shooting a teen in the head at a Walmart in Smithfield, NC. He said that he was being robbed when he shot.