COLUMBUS – A 26-year-old man was sentenced to at least 8 years in prison for shooting fireworks at Columbus police officers during downtown protests following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020.
Brandon Pack pleaded guilty in September to charges of aggravated riot, vandalism, and breaking and entering, as well as three counts of felonious assaults on police officers, and was sentenced Tuesday to 8 to 9-1/2 years in prison, according to a press release from the office of Franklin County Prosecutor Gary Tyack.
“Many people took to the streets to exercise their constitutional right to protest, a right which must be protected. This defendant’s conduct, however, was not a peaceful protest. It was a planned, violent attack on our fellow citizens utilizing both mortar-style fireworks that can kill, as well as bricks and rocks,” prosecutors Jason Manning and Steve Schott said in a written statement.
The Columbus man was photographed on the night of May 29, 2020, firing airburst mortar-based fireworks at police officers, several of whom read victim impact statements during the sentencing, hearing, Tyack said.
Officers who served during the night of the disturbance suffered a broken foot, permanent hearing loss, and burns, prosecutors said.
“They were targeted for a single reason: they wore blue,” Manning and Schott said.