Trio pleaded guilty to setting Metro vehicle on fire during 2020 protest

Three people pleaded guilty this week to setting a Metropolitan Police Department vehicle on fire during a protest in May 2020, the U.S. Attorney’s office announced Friday.

Tyree Walker, 23, Devarian Haynes, 23 and Ricardo Densmore, 24, each pleaded guilty to one count of civil disorder, according to the statement released Friday. They each face up to five years in prison.

Prosecutors said the men set the vehicle on fire near South 9th Street and Carson Avenue on May 31, 2020 during a protest.

“The defendants also admitted that they created a substantial risk of harm to others in the vicinity, knowing there was ammunition in the patrol vehicle that could have caused an explosion,” the statement read.

The fire was about two blocks from Downtown Container Park, which served as a popular gathering spot for protests in 2020.

In a hearing a week after the fire, prosecutors said Densmore filmed the video that showed Haynes pouring a flammable liquid from a gas can through a broken or missing front passenger side window of the patrol vehicle. Walker set the blaze as Haynes dropped the gas can into the patrol vehicle, according to court documents, before the men fled after hearing sirens from an approaching Metro vehicle.

On May 31, 2020, police arrested three men with ties to U.S. military and the anti-government “boogaloo” movement who came to a protest the night before on the Strip armed with Molotov cocktails to target police, investigators said.

The case against Stephen Parshall, Andrew Lynam and William Loomis has been delayed multiple times in federal court. In December, a jury trial was once again rescheduled, this time for October.

Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.