Vancouver Proud Boy found guilty of Jan. 6 Capitol riot charges

A federal judge found a Vancouver-based Proud Boys member guilty Tuesday of seven charges in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Following a bench trial, U.S. District Chief Judge James E. Boasberg found Marc Anthony Bru, 43, guilty of felony obstruction of an official proceeding and civil disorder, along with misdemeanor charges of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; entering and remaining in a gallery of Congress; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.

Bru is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 8, according to a Department of Justice news release.

Prosecutors said Bru marched on the Capitol with other Proud Boys members. He trampled over downed barricades and entered the Capitol’s West Plaza before confronting police attempting to hold them at bay, according to the news release.

When officers tried to use bicycle racks to hold the crowd back, Bru grabbed one and used his body weight to prevent officers from moving it. One officer tried to spray him with a chemical irritant, but Bru avoided it, the Department of Justice said.

Later, Bru entered the Capitol through an emergency exit, despite the blaring alarm, and made his way to the now-empty Senate chamber. He took celebratory photos there, the news release states.

Several weeks later, Bru sent an encrypted message to an aspiring Proud Boy, outlining his plans to conduct a similar armed insurrection against the Oregon state government, prosecutors said.

He was arrested March 30, 2021, in Vancouver.

Another Clark County man, Jeffrey Grace, 64, was sentenced in August to 75 days in federal prison for unlawfully entering the Capitol with a the pro-Trump mob. He had pleaded guilty in April in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to entering and remaining in a restricted building or ground.

Prosecutors argued Grace, of Battle Ground, was a “probate” member of the Proud Boys and was among the first wave of rioters to enter the Capitol. His son, Jeremy Grace, was sentenced to 21 days in prison for the same crime, court records show.