By Ryan J. Reilly -
NBC News
A man accused of stabbing a 19-year-old to death in a Utah park last July told police he thought he was already on the FBI's radar for carrying a gun during the Capitol assault.
“
I was in the DC riots, you can lock me up, okay?
,” John Emanuel Bañuelos told Salt Lake City police seven months ago after he was arrested in Liberty Park for a July 4 murder.
"I'm the one in the video with the gun here," he said, according to police.
The description of images given by Bañuelos seems to coincide with a viral video from Vice News in which a man is seen showing a gun on his waist while he is outside Congress.
Researchers analyzing the online material, whose work has contributed to the identification and arrest of several fanatics who attacked the Capitol, told NBC News that they first gave Bañuelos's name to the FBI in February 2021.
[The official log of calls made by Trump during the storming of the Capitol contains unexplained absences]
The man pictured with the gun was added to the FBI's "Seeking Information" gallery of the violence on Capitol Hill on February 3, 2021. FBI
Now, police records on the July 4th murder obtained by NBC affiliate KSL in Utah and shared with NBC News may help solidify what investigators say they told the FBI more than a year ago: Bañuelos, 37 years old, is the man with a gun to his waist seen in the video amid the crowd of supporters of then-President Donald Trump who rioted outside the Capitol building on January 6, 2021.
Bañuelos, official records say, told police, "[the FBI] hasn't come looking for me yet."
The young man admitted to the July 4 murder but claimed self-defense, and the local district attorney's office decided not to pursue that case at that time.
There is no indication that Bañuelos was questioned by the FBI in connection with the riot.
The FBI, which does not comment on ongoing criminal investigations, declined to comment on the Bañuelos investigation.
[They stormed the Capitol and then called Nancy Pelosi's office to complain about items they left]
Pro-Trump protesters, emboldened by the former president's false claims of voter fraud, broke through security barriers to storm the Capitol building as a joint session of Congress made official Joe Biden's victory in the November 2020 election.
Salt Lake City police said Banuelos told them he "went into" the Capitol, though detectives have found no evidence of him in the building.
Bañuelos told them that he "probably" had a warrant from the FBI for his involvement in the Jan. 6 attack.
“Man, should I tell the FBI to come get me or what?”
John Emanuel Banuelos
“Man, should I tell the FBI to come get me or what?” he asked, according to a police transcript, soon adding that he was “just messing around.”
It's unclear if the officers believed everything Bañuelos told them during his questioning about the stabbing, as police records indicate he said a lot of things that didn't make sense.
Online detectives investigating the Jan. 6 attack, who successfully identified hundreds of rioters, including dozens who have yet to be arrested, brought Bañuelos' identity to the attention of NBC News.
Some citizen investigators, part of a broader community of "sedition hunters" investigating Capitol suspects, say they are concerned about the murder in Salt Lake City.
[The three harshest accusations of Biden to Trump on the anniversary of the assault on the Capitol]
Donald Trump denies flushing official documents down a White House toilet
Feb. 10, 202200:34
The case illustrates
the challenges facing the FBI in pursuing the Jan. 6 attackers
, which federal authorities have described as the largest criminal investigation in US history, both in terms of the number of suspects and the volume of investigations. evidence.
The bureau received more than 200,000 tips through its public tip line in the few weeks after the Jan. 6 attack, and tens of thousands more through its National Threat Operations Center.
The volume was 750% above normal.
The bureau has made
more than 725 arrests of more than 2,500 people who were caught on video breaking the law that day
.
The FBI website features photos of more than 350 people of particular interest who have not yet been arrested.
Even with hundreds of cases yet to be charged, and with another alleged troublemaker named Guy Refitt, accused of being armed that day, set to go on trial this month, the federal court docket in DC is already jammed.
More than a year after the riots, the FBI is still facing uncomfortable questions about why it didn't do more before the attack on Capitol Hill.
The deadly stabbing at Liberty Park on July 4 raises another question about
whether more violence could have been prevented had investigators' online tip not seemed to go unnoticed
, people close to the victim said.
[From Capitol Hill to Local Politics: How Extremism Changed in the US After January 6]
Victoria Thomas told NBC News she's "not surprised" that the man police say stabbed her adopted son, 19-year-old Christopher Thomas Senn, told police he was involved in the Capitol riots and called Bañuelos an "evil person."
She was concerned to learn that detectives say the FBI had been tipped off about him months before his son was fatally stabbed.
The new arrests for the assault on the Capitol indicate that there was an organization to use force in the capital
Jan. 14, 202200:31
“I am heartbroken,”
she said.
"We're disappointed in the justice system... He should have been arrested... He's going to do this to someone else," she said.
Randal Thomas, Victoria's husband and Senn's adoptive father, wondered how Bañuelos, who was homeless, would have had the means to travel to Washington, saying he was equally concerned by the idea that the FBI had received information about him. last year.
"That's terrible," said Randal Thomas.
"I don't know what else he's done since then, but this stabbing of Chris doesn't make sense."
[The lie of the year 2021: the falsehoods about the assault on the Capitol]
The current location of Bañuelos is unclear.
Two phone numbers previously associated with him were disconnected and he did not immediately respond to a message sent to his Facebook account.
The murder appears to have occurred after a dispute over money.
Before stabbing Senn, another person hit Banuelos in the head with a skateboard, Banuelos and other witnesses told police.
Banuelos, according to the transcript of his police interview, said someone had accused him of stealing $150 and told police he believed he was in a "life and death" fight.
