correction
A previous version of this article incorrectly referred to Hatchet M. Speed's rank in the Navy Reserve. He is a petty officer first class. This article has been corrected.
A Navy reservist accused of breaching the U.S. Capitol with the Proud Boys extremist group on Jan. 6, 2021, avoided convictions Friday — at least for now — on separate charges that he kept unregistered silencers among a stash of firearms.
U.S. District Judge Michael S. Nachmanoff declared a mistrial in the case of Hatchet M. Speed after a jury in Alexandria, Va., was unable to reach a unanimous verdict. It was a rare setback for federal prosecutors in a high-profile case involving a defendant charged separately in the Capitol riot and what U.S. officials describe as a company in Georgia fraudulently marketing firearm suppressors, which are generally known as silencers, as gun-cleaning devices.
