Littleton man sentenced to 37 months in prison for kicking officer in chest during Jan. 6 riot
After Patrick Montgomery was arrested in January 2021, prosecutors said he illegally hunted a bobcat by using a slingshot to knock it out of a tree and then allowed his dogs to kill it
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A federal judge sentenced a Littleton man Thursday to 37 months in prison for wrestling with a police officer and kicking him in the chest as he breached the U.S. Capitol alongside hundreds of other rioters on Jan. 6, 2021.
Patrick Montgomery, 51, is also required to serve three years of supervised probation once his sentence is completed, the U.S. District Attorney’s Office said.
Montgomery was arrested in Colorado about 10 days after he flew to Washington, D.C. for former President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally and stormed the Capitol.
Four months later, he was put on house arrest after prosecutors say he violated the conditions of his release by having a gun and shooting a mountain lion.
According to a motion filed by federal prosecutors, Montgomery killed the mountain lion during a hunt in March 2021 even though he was ordered not to have any guns while the charges against him related to the Jan. 6 were pending.
After Montgomery reported the kill to state wildlife officials, as required by state law, a mandatory background check found that he was not legally allowed to have firearms because of a 1996 robbery conviction, court documents said.
Prosecutors also said Montgomery illegally hunted a bobcat, allegedly using a slingshot to knock it out of a tree, and then allowing his dogs to chase it for 11 miles before killing it in violation of state law. Colorado authorities charged him with two counts of unlawful taking of a bobcat.
Federal court documents said Montgomery was inside the Capitol for roughly 20 minutes after he attended the Stop the Steal rally. Montgomery wrestled with a Capitol police officer guarding the building’s entrance and grabbed the officer’s baton. As the two fought on the ground, Montgomery kicked the officer in the chest.
While inside, he was heard yelling at a police officer: “You gotta stop doing your job sometime and start being American. You gotta quit doing your job and be an American!” according to court documents.
Later that day, Montgomery posted a photo on Facebook of the Senate chambers and wrote that he had “stormed” the room, according to screenshots included in court documents. After someone advised him to stay out of trouble, he wrote, “[Y]ou guys got to quit being scared to get in trouble! The USA is in trouble! I’ll go down fighting before I’m scared anymore of getting in trouble.”
Attorneys for Montgomery did not immediately return a request for comment.
Since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,500 people have been charged in nearly all 50 states from crimes related to the riot. Montgomery is one of at least 20 Coloradans who have either been sentenced for a crime or are awaiting trial.
