(Ken Silva, Headline USA) It took the Justice Department more than three years to charge the only member of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Hill uprising to fire a gun. Moreover, the DOJ only charged the man after footage of the shooting was released last month by a J6 protestor.
Those circumstances strike some observers as suspicious.
The Twitter account of the shooter, John Emanuel Banuelos, has amplified those suspicions. Shortly after the news of Banuelos’s arrest was broken, Headline USA found old tweets where he claimed to be a “fed.” The twitter account is the same one referenced in DOJ charging papers—meaning that it indeed belongs to Banuelos.
“Do you want information from a former fed let me know,” Banuelos said in one tweet.
Do you want information from a former fed let me know
— John Banuelos (@JohnBan21401662) March 2, 2024
To be sure, Banuelos’s account shows signs of possible mental illness. The Jan. 6 shooter himself admitted to having been institutionalized in the past.
“Now I’ve got a purpose … Democrats just give you free stuff and they don’t tell you you’re crazy. How many hospitals have I been to? How many mental hospitals? Because I thought I had a problem … Now I’ve got to reprogram my brain and be humble … I’m willing to play my role. Are you willing to play yours?” he said a video apparently shot the night before Jan. 6.
However, his claims of being a fed, when coupled with the fact that the DOJ only charged him after a protestor released the shooting footage three years after it happened, has struck observers as suspicious.
“He has a lengthy rap sheet at least 14 arrests in 2 states. No charges for a fatal stabbing even though he’s a lifelong petty criminal with arrests for evading police, domestic battery, and false ID? Nothing adds up here,” conservative reporter Julie Kelly said in reaction to Banuelos’s tweets.
He has a lengthy rap sheet at least 14 arrests in 2 states. No charges for a fatal stabbing even though he’s a lifelong petty criminal with arrests for evading police, domestic battery, and false ID? Nothing adds up here.
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) March 11, 2024
Banuelos, for his part, is set to have a detention hearing Wednesday. A judge has appointed Seema Ahmad to serve as his public defender.
Banuelos was first in the public spotlight in February 2022, when news broke that he had been arrested in relation to a fatal stabbing of a 19-year-old in a Utah park in July 2021.
When he was arrested, he reportedly told police about his activities on Jan. 6.
“Man, should I just tell the FBI to come get me or what …?” Banuelos, 39, asked detectives, according to a transcript of the interview obtained by KSL.com through a public records request.
“Do you have a warrant?” one detective asked.
“Probably,” he said. “I was in the D.C. riots.”
“On Jan. 6?” the other detective asked. “Did you go inside the Capitol?”
“Yeah, I went inside and I’m the one with the video with the gun right here,” Banuelos said.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
