Man who set fire to police vehicle while wearing Joker mask during George Floyd unrest sentenced to nearly six years

A South Facet man was sentenced Wednesday to 34 months in federal jail for setting fireplace to a Chicago police SUV within the Loop whereas carrying a “Joker” clown masks throughout the chaos and looting that struck town in 2020.

Timothy O’Donnell, 33, pleaded guilty in February to 1 rely of interfering with legislation enforcement throughout the fee of civil dysfunction.

In handing down the sentence, U.S. District Decide Andrea Wooden mentioned, “His actions undermined the peaceable protesters and led to loads of confusion … about what’s a legit protest, what’s an illegitimate protest, put at risk the lives of legit protesters and put at risk the lives of legislation enforcement officers.”

In the course of the sentencing, O’Donnell learn with a shaky voice a ready assertion apologizing to the organizers of the peaceable protests, the residents of Chicago, his father and his mom, who he mentioned is retiring early from Illinois State Police forensics due to his motion’s influence on her fame.

In a prolonged letter to the courtroom forward of sentencing, O’Donnell took duty for his actions and described himself as “a really passive (aggressive) individual.”

“It was probably the most outlandish show of angst that I could have been harboring from varied private accounts of psychological and bodily abuse by legislation enforcement after I was both (touring) or homeless,” the letter states.

The photographs of O’Donnell within the Joker masks with flames erupting behind him made him one of many highest-profile defendants within the federal circumstances to stem from the chaos and looting that struck town after the homicide of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

Prosecutors mentioned {that a} downtown protest had grown violent on the afternoon of Could 30, 2020, when O’Donnell was seen on video taken by a bystander approaching the police car parked within the 200 block of North State Road, inserting a fabric contained in the gasoline tank and lighting it with a lighter.

Different people then “exacerbated the fireplace” by pouring accelerants on it, in accordance with prosecutors. The car was destroyed.

After the squad automobile burst into flames, O’Donnell was captured in {a photograph} supplied by a unique witness posing in entrance of the blaze, in accordance with a prison criticism filed on the time of O’Donnell’s arrest. Although his face was obscured by the grinning masks, O’Donnell’s distinctive neck tattoo studying “PRETTY” may clearly be seen within the photograph, in accordance with the criticism.

That picture — in addition to a number of others — have been included within the charging doc. Police discovered the masks in O’Donnell’s bed room after they searched his condominium within the 700 block of West nineteenth Road, in accordance with the criticism.

O’Donnell later admitted in an interview with legislation enforcement that he was the one seen within the masks igniting the blaze, the fees alleged.