“I Will Eat Your Flesh” Rioter Pleads Guilty To Felony

May 20, 2022 Extremists, Trump cultists

Salt Lake City’s Fox affiliate reports:

A Utahn who became one of the faces of the Capitol riots pleaded guilty Thursday. Landon Copeland admitted to a felony count of assaulting resisting or impeding officers with a dangerous weapon in Thursday’s hearing and faces up to eight years in prison.

The judge said guidelines would likely recommend a sentence of 41 to 51 months for his involvement. Copeland became a symbol of what happened on January 6, 2021, when news photographers captured images of him wrestling with police over a crowd control fence.

“I do believe that the jury, whenever they stand there, they will see me as nothing more than a soldier trying to defend his people from the people who were attacking them,” Copeland said.

From the Justice Department:

Copeland was part of a group of rioters illegally gathered at approximately 1:11 p.m. on Jan. 6 on the West Plaza of the Capitol grounds, a restricted area. While there, another rioter approached a Capitol Police officer and placed his hands around the officer’s collar or neck. From behind, Copeland pushed that other rioter, and the officer fell to the ground.

The officer sustained injuries to his knee, back, and hip during his defense of the Capitol on Jan. 6, and attributes some of these injuries to this incident.

Immediately after the officer fell to the ground, other officers came to his assistance. Copeland grabbed a riot shield belonging to one officer and pushed against the police line. He grabbed another officer’s jacket and grappled with that officer, pushing the officer backward. Then he lowered his body to block other officers as they attempted to control the crowd.

As these assaults continued, members of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) arrived to assist. MPD officers began placing metal bike rack-style barricades across the West Plaza in an effort to establish a perimeter around the Capitol Building.

At approximately 1:14 p.m., another rioter grabbed one of these barricades, pulling it away from an MPD officer standing with it. Copeland and other rioters joined in a tug of war with officers who attempted to reclaim the barricade.

As events continued, chemical spray was deployed against members of the crowd. Copeland then charged officers with the barricade, pushing and throwing it into multiple officers.

Copeland was arrested on April 29, 2021, in St. George, Utah. He is to be sentenced on Sept. 9, 2022. He faces a statutory maximum of eight years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

Raw Story reports:



Copeland has been incarcerated for all but two days since his arrest last April 29. As Raw Story reported last year, he was released and rearrested immediately after this communication with the probation officer:

“I will eat your flesh for nutrients. You don’t know what I am,” Copeland told the probation officer, according to a motion from prosecutors seeking to keep him detained.

Just before making the threat, Copeland screamed at a judge and court officials during an off-the-rails Zoom hearing on May 6. He texted his probation officer from the hearing saying, “Tell them I want to speak, or I will die for it!”

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