A Maryland man is heading to the slammer for a decade after torching Supreme Court cop cars in a fiery Capitol Hill rampage. Cody Michael Tarner, 26, from Hagerstown, was slapped with a 120-month prison sentence on charges of arson, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office.
On top of his prison term, U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth mandated Tarner to serve three years of supervised release and cough up $32,371.42 in restitution. The government's evidence showed that back on July 15, 2020, Tarner had parked at an employee-only lot at the Supreme Court and doused several unmarked police vehicles with gasoline before igniting one with unleaded fuel he bought specifically for the stunt.
A big fire burned two police cars, wrecking one completely. Tarner got badly burned too, caught on camera. He's a militia leader who hates the government and has clashed with the law before, as the investigation found out.
This case saw the involvement of the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force along with the Supreme Court of the United States Police – Protective Intelligence Unit and the Metropolitan Police Department, leading to Tarner’s eventual guilty plea earlier this year on January 9. In a collaborative effort to bring the arsonist to justice, the case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Emory V. Cole and Attorney James Peterson.
