WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st October, 2022) A 20-year-old North Carolina man who sprayed a chemical irritant at police officers and broke a window at the US Capitol with a baseball bat during the January 6 riot pleaded guilty to assault, the Department of Justice said in a press release.
"A North Carolina man pleaded guilty today to assaulting law enforcement officers with a dangerous weapon - chemical spray - during the breach of the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021," the release said on Thursday.
Aiden Henry Bilyard, 20, of Cary, North Carolina, who pleaded guilty in the District of Columbia, was arrested in November of last year and faces up to 20 years in prison. He will be sentenced in February, 2023, according to the release.
Bilyard, among a crowd illegally gathered in the Upper West Plaza of the Capitol grounds, sprayed a gold-colored canister of "home defense pepper gel" at a group of officers who were attempting to prevent the mob from proceeding further towards the Capitol Building.
Bilyard and other rioters then overwhelmed the police line, forcing officers to retreat through a stairwell to the Lower West Terrace, the release said.
The Justice Department accused Bilyard of encouraging an individual who was striking a window of the Capitol Building with what appeared to be a small axe.
"Bilyard was handed a bat, which he used to shatter the lower glass portion of the window. He then turned to face the crowd and clapped and shouted in an act of encouragement for people to start entering the building. Bilyard also entered the Capitol by crawling through the window that he had shattered."
According to NBC, Bilyard was in Air Force basic training when he was questioned by FBI in August of 2021.
