Pittsburgh man sentenced to 4 years after pleading guilty to setting police vehicle on fire during Downtown protests

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - A Pittsburgh man was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to setting a police vehicle on fire and smashing bank windows during the May 2020 protest over the killing of George Floyd.

Devin Montgomery, 27, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States and bank burglary before a judge on Monday.

The Department of Justice said the march after George Floyd's death in Minneapolis police custody started around 2:30 p.m. on Liberty Avenue on May 20, 2020, and ended two hours later near PPG Paints Arena, where there was a standoff with officers in riot gear. Two police vehicles, one marked and one unmarked, were set on fire, prosecutors said. 

Video from the scene shows first an unknown man and then Montgomery lighting items and throwing them into an unmarked empty police vehicle parked at the curb near the Fifth Avenue entrance of PPG Paints Arena, the Department of Justice said. The fire spread quickly through the vehicle and destroyed it. 

Prosecutors said many people then went back into Downtown, where businesses were vandalized, burglarized and looted. The government said it has video showing Montgomery and another person using rocks to smash the windows and glass doors at the Dollar Bank on Smithfield Street. 

Montgomery was sentenced to four years in prison followed by three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay restitution to cover the cost of the destroyed police vehicle, the Department of Justice said.