A Marine who allegedly stormed the U.S. Capitol and gave a Nazi salute in front of the building was sentenced Friday to nearly five years in prison.
Tyler Bradley Dykes, of South Carolina, was an active-duty U.S. Marine when he snatched riot shields from the hands of two police officers and used them to push past a police line during an attack by a mob of Donald Trump supporters on January 6, 2021.
Dykes, who pleaded guilty to assault in April, had been convicted of crimes related to the “Unite the Right” white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. Dykes will serve six months in state prison before being transferred to federal prison in 2023.
According to the Department of Justice, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell sentenced Dykes, 26, to four years and nine months in prison.
Federal prosecutors had sought a prison sentence of five years and three months for Dykes.
“He was directly involved in some of the most extreme acts of violence on the east side of the Capitol,” prosecutors wrote.
Dykes’ lawyers had sought a two-year sentence, saying his client knew his actions on January 6 were “unlawful, indefensible and unacceptable.”
During the sentencing hearing, Dykes said he still supported Trump and would back him “as the next president of our country.”
“Tyler abhors his involvement in the attack on the Capitol,” his lawyers wrote. “He takes full responsibility for his actions. Tyler apologizes for those actions.”
Dykes, then 22, had traveled to Washington with two friends from his hometown of Bluffton, South Carolina, to attend Republican President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally. After parting ways with them, Dykes approached the Capitol, ripping snow fences off the ground and removing bike rack barricades.
Dykes then joined other rioters and broke through the line of police guarding the steps leading to the doors of the Capitol’s East Rotunda.
“After reaching the top of the stairs, Dykes celebrated his accomplishment by performing what appeared to be a ‘Sieg Heil’ salute,” prosecutors wrote.
Dykes stole a riot shield from two police officers, then entered the Capitol, holding the shield in one hand and raising the other in a celebratory gesture. Prosecutors said he then used the shield to attack officers inside the building, forcing them to retreat into a hallway.
Dykes handed his shield over to an officer after leaving the Capitol.
Dykes has denied making the Nazi salute on January 6, but prosecutors allege he was caught on video making the gesture with his arms outstretched.
In August 2017, Dykes was photographed marching with tiki-torch-wielding white supremacists on the campus of the University of Virginia on the eve of a “Unite the Right” rally, with his right arm outstretched in a Nazi salute and a lit torch in his left hand.
Dykes was arrested on charges related to the protests in March 2023. He pleaded guilty to a felony charge of burning an object with intent to intimidate.
Dykes enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps after briefly attending Cornell University in the fall of 2017. He was discharged from the military in May 2023 for reasons other than an “honorable discharge.”
“Dykes’ criminal conduct on January 6th demonstrated that rather than upholding his oath to protect and defend the Constitution, he chose to violate it instead,” prosecutors wrote.
More than 1,400 people have been charged with federal crimes in connection with the Capitol attack.
Of those, more than 900 have been convicted, with roughly two-thirds receiving prison sentences ranging from a few days to 22 years.
