A member of the Proud Boys extremist group who took selfies in the Senate gallery during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and once told a judge he would “still do it all over again” was sentenced Wednesday to six years in prison, federal prosecutors said.
Marc Anthony Bru, 44, of Vancouver, Washington, was also sentenced to 36 months of supervised release and ordered to pay a $7,946 fine and $2,000 in restitution, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said in a statement.
Bru was found guilty on Oct. 3 of two felonies, obstruction of an official proceeding and civil disorder, along with five misdemeanors, prosecutors said.
On Jan. 6, prosecutors said, Bru met up with other members of the Proud Boys and was “intent on obstructing the certification of the Electoral College vote.”
Bru was among the first to breach a restricted perimeter on the west side of the Capitol grounds, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. He also made his way to the front of a mob on the west plaza, prosecutors said, and for almost two hours verbally harassed U.S. Capitol Police.
While officers there tried to gain control of the area, Bru became physical with them, prosecutors said.
“At one point, as police officers attempted to secure the area with bike rack barricades, Bru rushed in to join a struggle between rioters and police,” according to prosecutors. “Bru used his full body weight to push back against the bike rack barricade that police were attempting to use to re-establish control of a small area on the West Plaza. The officers attempted to repel Bru with pepper spray but were ultimately unsuccessful.”
When the police line broke, prosecutors said, Bru made his way up the steps of the Capitol to the upper west terrace, where he joined others in the mob by chanting, “Let us in!”
Inside the Capitol, prosecutors said, it took Bru less than 10 minutes to make it to the Senate gallery, near the Senate floor, which had been evacuated about 20 minutes earlier, prosecutors said.
In the gallery, Bru took selfies with the empty Senate floor in the background. In one picture, he flashed a hand sign associated with the Proud Boys, prosecutors said.
The FBI arrested Bru on March 30, 2021. While he was on pretrial release, he was arrested twice for allegedly driving under the influence, but he failed to appear at scheduled court hearings in both cases, prosecutors said.
On June 26 of last year, Bru also failed to appear for a scheduled pretrial hearing in his federal case. Two days later, he posted screenshots on social media of a conversation he had about news reports that he failed to show at the federal hearing, according to prosecutors.
He wrote, “nice, I certified mailed my motion to the prosecutor, I’m done entertaining their bull—-,” prosecutors said.
Bru also failed to show up at a second district court hearing on June 30, and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest. He was arrested on July 23. During that hearing, he told a federal judge, according to prosecutors, “You could give me 100 years and I would still do it all over again.”
A lawyer for Bru did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment about his sentence.
About 1,265 people, from nearly every state, have been charged with crimes associated with breaching the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, prosecutors said. About 440 people have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, according to prosecutors.
