Trump supporter charged with firing a gun during the Jan. 6 Capitol attack
A Trump supporter is now charged with firing a gun outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The first rioter to be charged with firing a weapon.
WASHINGTON — A Donald Trump enthusiast who appeared to fire two gunshots at the Capitol on Jan. 6 was arrested by federal authorities on Friday.
NBC News identified John Emanuel Banuelos two years ago as the man in photos and video footage who appeared to be flashing a gun in his waistband as he fought officers on Jan. 6, 2021.
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. 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, now lives in Summit, Illinois, and he made his first appearance in federal court in Illinois on Friday after his arrest.
John Emanuel Banuelos on Jan. 6, 2021.U.S. Attorney for the District of ColumbiaBanuelos, as NBC News reported in conjunction with NBC affiliate KSL, was arrested about six months after the Capitol attack, when he fatally stabbed a 19-year-old in a park in Utah on July 4, 2021. Banuelos was not charged in that attack because he claimed self-defense, but he told investigators that he was at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and had displayed his weapon.
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