WASHINGTON — A 26-year-old Maryland man was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Tuesday for pouring gasoline over several U.S. Supreme Court Police cars on Capitol Hill and lighting one on fire.
On Jan. 9, Cody Michael Tarner pleaded guilty to a charge of arson. In addition to his prison sentence, Tarner was ordered to serve three years of supervised release and pay a total of $32,371.42 in restitution.
According to evidence, on July 15, 2020, Tarner drove his car onto the United States Supreme Court property, located on First Street in Northeast, D.C., and parked in an employee-only parking spot. He then got out and walked around the property before returning to his car and pulling out a red gas can.
At 1:48 p.m., Tarner was seen on security cameras pouring gasoline onto three unmarked Supreme Court Police cars parked in the employee-only parking spaces. The unmarked cars had emergency police lights that could be seen from outside the cars, and one of the cars had emergency lights on its roof.
While pouring the gas, some of it splashed on Tarner's clothing, and as a result, when he lit one of the cars on fire, he was also engulfed in flames. He suffered severe burns and injuries. The fire seriously damaged two of the police cars, one of which was a total loss.
Tarner admitted to starting the fire with the gas he bought in Pennsylvania for that purpose.
Investigators say Tarner had several prior encounters with law enforcement where he expressed anti-government and extreme militia ideologies. He also claimed to be the leader of an unidentified militia group.
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