Newly released footage from the January 6 Capitol riot appears to show a man firing a gun into the air after climbing scaffolding.
The man in the video allegedly firing shots into the air is identified as John Emanuel Banuelos, who was arrested in 2021 in Utah’s Liberty Park in connection with the fatal stabbing of a 19-year-old. At the time, he told police he was also “in the D.C. riots.” According to NBC News, “The Salt Lake City DA’s office did not pursue a case against Banuelos, who claimed self-defense in Senn’s death.” However, at the time he claimed he was the one who shot the gun into the air on January 6, 2021.
“You can look me up, OK?” he reportedly told Salt Lake City police. “I’m the one in the video with the gun right here.”
The new footage was released by Derrick Evans, who pled guilty to a felony charge of civil disorder for his actions on January 6. Notably, Evans, who formally served as a lawmaker in West Virginia, is running for Congress, making the announcement last year.
“I chose today to announce my bid for the House of Representatives because it is an important anniversary in US history,” Evans said in a statement on January 6, 2023.
“While my name will indelibly be part of it, we should also use (it) as a chance to remind ourselves about why democracy is so important and how easily it can be threatened,” he added.
Evans shared a clip of the footage on social media:
More per NBC News:
Evans did not shoot the new video — he stormed the Capitol from the east side of the building, not the west side where the shots were fired — but he’s been using the video he obtained to raise money for his campaign and placed narration over the video that included false claims about the Jan. 6 attack.
Notably, Banuelos has not been charged for anything related to January 6. NBC News informed Evans that the man in the video had been identified, and he surmised that he is an “agitator” who could be a federal agent, noting that it was odd he has not been arrested.
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Matt Perdie / Breitbart News“I think it’d be very disingenuous for myself or anyone for that matter to be like, ‘He’s for sure a federal agent,’ that would be wrong to say that,” Evans said, according to NBC News. “But I think it’s equally wrong to say he’s definitely not. I think it’s a fair question.”
The news comes on the heels of former President Donald Trump’s legal team battling claims of Trump inciting “insurrection,” which some states — namely, Colorado — are using to try to kick him off the ballot. However, the Supreme Court argument forecasts a major victory for Trump in the Colorado case “after the beating the lawyers against him received Thursday from the justices,” Breitbart News reported.
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