DC man sentenced in Molotov cocktail confrontation with Capitol Police

A Washington, D.C., man has been sentenced to 30 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a confrontation with police during which he possessed two Molotov cocktails. 

A release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia states that 26-year-old Bernard McCutcheon was originally sentenced to 60 months, but the sentence was cut in half on the condition that he successfully complete three years of probation. He pleaded guilty to a charge of assault with a dangerous weapon at the end of September.

McCutcheon was arrested in July near the Capitol after two Capitol Police officers confronted him while he was in possession of two Molotov cocktails. 

The officers were responding to a 911 call and approached McCutcheon along Massachusetts Avenue, west of North Capitol Street. McCutcheon backed away from the officers while holding one Molotov cocktail as they approached, according to the release. 

One Molotov cocktail hit the ground near where the officers were standing during the confrontation, and McCutcheon attempted to light the second one but was unable to do so. He then fled and ran into a bicycle rack, and the cocktail fell on the ground and shattered. 

Officers searched him upon making the arrest and found a 2-liter soda bottle containing a “pale amber” liquid that appeared and smelled like gasoline in his backpack. 

McCutcheon had been on probation at the time of the arrest after he threw a Molotov cocktail at a woman in northwest D.C. in April. The bottle landed on the woman’s foot and caught fire on her shoe, bruising her toe. 

He was sentenced the next month to a 13-month sentence that was suspended on the condition he complete 18 months of supervised probation. McCutcheon’s probation from this case was revoked and he was ordered to complete the remaining time on his prison sentence in light of the confrontation with the officers.