WASHINGTON — Newly released footage from January 6, 2021 shows a male rioter It was identified in an NBC News story nearly two years ago – gunfire outside the Capitol during an attack.
Online sleuths who have helped with hundreds of stalking incidents since Jan. 6 say he is the same man they reported to the FBI and is now the 200th individual on the bureau’s Capitol Violence page, which first appeared three years ago. Video and photos from the Capitol on January 6 pointed at him with the pistol in his waist. whom This was previously reported by NBC News, a man named John Emanuel Banuelos told Salt Lake City police he was at the Capitol and was filmed holding a gun. “I was in the DC riots,” he told investigators, according to a police transcript. “I’m the one with the gun in the video.”
Banuelos was not arrested or charged in connection with the January 6 incident; Salt Lake City police arrested him in connection with the July 4, 2021, fatal stabbing of 19-year-old Christopher Thomas Senn at a park.
“Man, should I tell the FBI to come get me or what?” he asked Salt Lake City police officers, according to a police transcript. A few weeks later, Banuelos called the department’s investigator and “told him to go wherever Donald Trump sent him,” referring to the Capitol, according to a police memo. The Salt Lake City DA’s office did not file charges against Banuelos, who claimed self-defense in Sen’s death.
now, personnel A video posted by another protester on January 6 shows Banuelos firing a gun twice into the air during a chaotic scene on the west side of the Capitol as protesters battled police. Online intelligence has also come under the surveillance of the US Capitol Police personnel Previously released in connection with another incident related to the Capitol attack, it appears that the man they identified as Banuelos fired the gun. They found many other videos of gunshots.
The footage is the first footage of a protester firing a gun on January 6. The incident happened at 2:34 p.m., about 10 minutes before the officer entered the Capitol. Ashley shot and killed Babbitt as he jumped through the broken window leading into the speaker’s lobby. The gun incident outside the Capitol was previously unknown to online scouts and was not mentioned in any lawsuits. At the time and place of the shootings, the Capitol grounds were in chaos, with law enforcement officers firing their own non-lethal munitions after sustained, repeated attacks on officers, which may explain the two shots. the gunshots did not attract much attention.
Despite repeated false claims by conservative media outlets that the mob that stormed the Capitol was unarmed, the Justice Department testified in court that numerous defendants were armed with deadly or dangerous weapons, including several who carried firearms. The January 6 rioters were found to be carrying firearms during the attack on the Capitol Christopher Albertssentenced to seven years in prison; Mark Mazza, who carried two guns and served five years in federal prison; and Guy ReffittOn January 6, he was sentenced to seven years in federal prison after becoming the first defendant to be tried.
Another participant on January 6, Jerod Bargar, he dropped his weapon was in a mob and was recently sentenced to five years’ probation with six months’ house arrest. The officer who found Bargar’s gun on the ground was “aware of numerous reports of firearms in the community.” according to prosecutors. Trump also knew that the crowd was armedhis former aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified before a House committee on January 6, 2022. He called on security at the morning rally to remove the magnetometers, he testified, adding that Trump yelled, “They’re not here to hurt me.”
Because so few rioters were arrested at the scene on January 6, there will never be a full report on how many rioters were carrying guns and other weapons.
New personnel released this week by Derrick EvansOn January 6, the rioter admitted to committing a serious crime on January 6 and sentenced to three months in federal prison. He is a former West Virginia legislator and now escape For Congress, he shouted at police officers on his live broadcast that day: “We’re taking this country back whether you like it or not!”
Evans didn’t shoot the new video — he attacked the Capitol from the east side of the building, not the west side where the shots were fired — but he used the footage to raise money for his campaign and superimposed a narrative on the video. It included false claims about the January 6 attack.
According to NBC News, the person who posted his video has been identified, Evans told NBC News that he thinks it is “fishy” that Banuelos was not arrested. Although Banuelos has an extensive online history of being a Trump supporter, Evans described him as a “propagandist” and said he thought he might be a federal agent. false narrative this has been repeatedly disproved.
“I think it would be disingenuous of myself or anybody to come off as, ‘He’s definitely a federal agent,'” Evans said. “But I think it’s equally wrong to say it’s not definitive. I think this is a fair question.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, which is overseeing more than 1,250 cases against the Jan. 6 rioters in the more than three years since the Capitol attack, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on any potential criminal charges against him. Banuelos. Banuelos did not immediately respond to a message sent to one of his social media accounts.
In the nearly two years since Banuelos’ disclosure, a social media account under his name has sent threatening messages to online investigators working to investigate Jan. 6, the targets of the threats told NBC News. One of the veiled threat videos posted by Banuelos to the group shows Banuelos holding a gun; Those images a recent PBS segment About the case of Sedition Hunters.