Former Jan. 6 defendant arrested on kidnapping and aggravated assault charges

A Donald Trump supporter who fired off a gun during the 2021 attack on the U.S.

A Donald Trump supporter who fired off a gun during the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol was arrested last month on kidnapping and sexual assault charges, according to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office in Illinois.

John Banuelos, 40, who is from Utah but whose sister lives in the Chicago area, was arrested “near 29th Street and Cicero Avenue in Cicero” on Oct. 17, according to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office. A warrant for his arrest was issued in Salt Lake County on Oct. 1 on charges of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office said.

Banuelos was previously identified in an NBC News story in February 2022, which revealed him as the man who shot off a weapon at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Online “sedition hunters” correctly identified Banuelos, 40, and gave his name to the FBI in February 2021. Months later, on July 4, 2021, Banuelos stabbed a man — Christopher Thomas Senn — to death in Salt Lake City, but was not charged after claiming self-defense.

According to Salt Lake City police, after he was arrested for the stabbing, Banuelos told cops, “I was in the D.C. riots. You can look me up, OK?”