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Bernard McCutcheon, 26, has been sentenced to 60 months in prison, with all but 30 months suspended, for an incident last summer after pleading guilty in September to assault with a dangerous weapon.
Officials said that at approximately 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, July 6, McCutcheon was in possession of two Molotov cocktails on the steps of 25 Massachusetts Ave. NW when Capitol Police officers responded to an emergency call.
As the officers approached McCutcheon, prosecutors say that he backed away from them while holding one of the Molotov cocktails. During the confrontation, that Molotov cocktail hit the ground near where the officers were standing.
McCutcheon then took out a second Molotov cocktail and attempted to light the white cloth hanging from the bottle repeatedly while in the proximity of officers, according to prosecutors.
After failing to light the cloth, McCutcheon fled and ran into a nearby bicycle rack, where the second Molotov Cocktail shattered on the ground.
In a search at the time of his arrest, officers found a backpack containing a 2-liter soda bottle with a pale amber liquid consistent with the appearance and odor of gasoline.
McCutcheon has been in custody since his arrest.
At the time of the incident with Capitol Police, federal prosecutors noted that McCutcheon was on probation in another case in which he threw a Molotov cocktail at a woman who was walking on a street in Northwest Washington.
In that incident, McCutcheon threw a Molotov cocktail at a woman who was walking near a gas station in the 300 block of Rhode Island Avenue NW.
The bottle landed on the victim’s foot and burst into flames, catching her shoe on fire and bruising a toe. Shards of glass from the bottle also cut the victim’s shin.
On Friday, May 20, McCutcheon was sentenced to 13 months in prison in this case, with all of the time suspended on the condition that he successfully completed 18 months of supervised probation.
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