A southwestern Missouri man charged with two felonies in connection with the Capitol riot — including assaulting an officer — and several misdemeanors, pleaded guilty to all charges in federal court on Tuesday.
Kyler Joseph Bard, of Seneca, entered the plea in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Judge Amit P. Mehta fixed his sentencing for November 1.
Bard, 28, is the 31st of 37 Missourians charged in Capitol riot cases to plead guilty or be found guilty at trial. Of these, 25 have been convicted. Six other Missouri suspects have been convicted and are awaiting sentencing, and the cases of another six are still pending.
Bard was arrested in Joplin in January 2023. He was charged with assaulting, resisting or obstructing officers and obstructing officers during a civil disorder, both felonies. He also faced four misdemeanor charges: entering and remaining in any restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive behavior in a building or grounds to which access has not been granted; engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds; and committing an act of violence on the Capitol building or grounds.
According to the insult signed by Bard, on the morning of January 6, 2021, he attended the ‘Stop the Steal’ rally at the Washington Monument with others. After the meeting, it said, Bard went to his hotel for lunch and then headed to the Capitol.
At about 3:28 p.m., the statement said, Bard was standing on a ledge on the Capitol’s Upper West Terrace, where officers had formed a police line as a barrier. Two minutes later, Bard walked onto the edge with a bullhorn in his hand, it said. Shortly afterwards, another person near Bard charged and pushed into the officers.
In response, the statement said, Bard shouted into the megaphone, “Go away! Movement! Movement! We have to push! We have to push! Let’s go! We have to go! Let’s go!”
Bard then turned directly toward the police line, the document said.
“And as he shouted, ‘Let’s push,’ he took several steps, raised his left arm and leaned forward, pushing the officer,” it said. “When the defendant made physical contact with Officer MG, Officer MG raised his baton. At the time the defendant forcibly entered the police line, Officer MG was wearing a full uniform including a riot helmet and standing next to a group of similarly dressed officers.
While Bard was in the restricted area, his statement said, he was exposed to chemical irritants and had to clean his eyes with water.
For approximately four seconds, the affidavit said, Bard confronted Officer MG “by physically running into the officer.”
“Bard then lost his balance and fell backwards to the ground,” the report said. “While on the ground, Bard was pepper sprayed. As the defendant fell backwards, he yelled at the officers, ‘You’re all a bunch of s—’ before getting up and running away.”
According to the charging document, a review of a video posted to Twitter showed a man who appeared to be Bard talking on a cell phone outside the Capitol.
“You can hear Bard saying, ‘I’ve already been hit, hit, they took away my microphone, and when I hit them, they hit me back.’ He punched me in the face. But it’s what we have to do. We have to go in, we have to take over. We have to do it. ”
After the attack on the Capitol, images of Bard participating in the riot appeared online, the charging document said. The FBI created a profile of Bard from the footage and nicknamed him “AFO-447,” the document said. AFO stands for ‘assault on federal officer’.
The FBI posted these images on its website and social media and asked the public for help identifying the man, the document said. A confidential source came forward and provided material from the Instagram account of a “kyler_bard” that appeared to show Bard appearing on the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, the report said.
The user of that account had posted a photo of someone appearing to pour water in Bard’s eyes and referred to how he “was punched and punched for shouting into a megaphone,” according to the document.
The FBI contacted Bard at his home, and the agent who interviewed him confirmed that he was the same person as the man in the photos.
“During the interview,” the document said, “Bard admitted to attending the Stop The Steal rally in Washington DC on January 6, 2021, but informed officers that he had not entered the Capitol or done anything illegal .’
