National guardsman who set off an FBI manhunt sentenced for Jan. 6 assault

A former sergeant in the New Jersey Army National Guard military police was sentenced to two and a half years in prison on Tuesday for pepper spraying officers as they were under assault by the pro-Donald Trump mob at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

Gregory Yetman set off an FBI manhunt when he fled into the woods after special agents showed up to arrest him on Capitol attack charges in November 2023. Yetman, who was identified by online sleuths who have aided the FBI in hundreds of Capitol rioting cases, pleaded guilty in April, admitting that he committed a felony count of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers with physical contact and the intent to commit another felony.

Yetman was sentenced to 30 months in prison during a hearing before Chief Judge James E. Boasberg in a federal courthouse in Washington Tuesday.

Until his plea, Yetman had been one of about a dozen Jan. 6 defendants held in pretrial custody. Yetman was known to online "sedition hunters" as #GreenHeavySprayer, and was listed as "278-AFO" on the FBI's Capitol Violence website, its most wanted list of Jan. 6 rioters, with the "AFO" designation indicating he was wanted for assault on federal officers.

Federal prosecutors had sought 45 months of incarceration for the 47-year-old Yetman, who they say drove from New Jersey and then took the metro from Virginia into Washington to see Trump speak at the Ellipse on Jan. 6. Yetman admitted hearing "flash bangs" and observing tear gas as he approached the Capitol and witnessed a police officer get pulled into the mob.

Yetman assaulted officers with the chemical spray from a large canister he picked on Capitol grounds for 12 to 14 seconds moments after the officers were physically assaulted by other rioters who