Accused Jan. 6 rioter charged with firing gun during U.S. Capitol attack: report
An accused Jan. 6 rioter who appears to have twice fired a gun during the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol was charged Friday, according to reports and court records.
John Emanuel Banuelos was the subject of the NBC News investigation that began two years ago when photos and video surfaced of a man with a gun tucked in waistband during the riots, according to reporter Ryan Reilly.
"Last month, Jan. 6 rioter Derrick Evans, who is now running in a Republican House primary in West Virginia, published previously unseen video that appeared to show that Banuelos actually fired his weapon twice outside the Capitol that day," the report notes. "Online 'sedition hunters' who have aided the FBI in hundreds of arrests of Capitol rioters — and who first sent Banuelos' name to the FBI in February 2021 — quickly surfaced additional footage that confirmed that Banuelos was the man who appeared to have fired the weapon."
Banuelos, 39, made his first appearance in federal court in Illinois on Friday, the report states.
"While numerous rioters were armed with guns on Jan. 6, none were known to have actually fired their weapons; Banuelos is the first to be charged with doing so," noted the report.
"The shots he allegedly fired outside the Capitol came at 2:34 p.m., which is about 10 minutes before Ashli Babbitt was fatally shot as she breached a window leading into the Speaker's Lobby. That means it was a member of the pro-Trump mob — not law enforcement — that fired the first gunshot of the day."
NBC reached out to an Instagram account under Banuelos' name and received a message in response to their request for comment.
"There's a war going on between the truths of God and the lies of this world the flesh and the devil," the account under Banuelos' name told NBC News. "And my personal mantra that goes like this God first, think twice moved once, to be aware is to be alive!"