FBI
Screenshot of GoPro video of Anthony Michael Puma crawling through a broken window at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
A Brownstown Township man who declared that “war was coming” before he stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced Tuesday to nine months in prison, two years of supervised release, a $500 fine, and restitution of $2,000.
Anthony Puma, 50, pleaded guilty to obstruction of an official proceeding on Aug. 30, 2022.
On the day of the insurrection, Puma strapped a GoPro camera to his head and marched from his hotel to the Capitol, where he entered the building’s restricted area and urged others to clear the way for rioters to scale the wall.
A few minutes later, Puma declared, “I just scaled that fucking wall.”
Puma entered the Capitol through a shattered window and went into a senator’s office with other rioters, according to court records. He also entered another room where rioters were congregating.
After leaving the building, Puma used his cell phone to began livestreaming videos on social media and boasted, “We got tear-gassed. Now we just tried storming it again, and we got pepper sprayed,” he said.
Four days after the riot, Puma posted an ominous warning on Facebook, saying, “Watch what is to come in the next two weeks to month. It will shock the world.”
About a week before the insurrection, Puma wrote on Facebook that he planned to attend the Stop the Steal rally in Washington D.C., where he said “we might have to start killing some commie bastards.”
Puma was arrested in May 2021.
He is among at least 23 Michigan residents to be charged for their involvement in the insurrection.
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