Southwest suburban man charged with firing gun during January 6 US Capitol insurrection

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Three years and two months after the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, a southwest suburban man has been charged with firing a gun during the violence.

FBI agents took John Banuelos into custody at about 9 a.m. in Summit, Ill. on multiple felony and misdemeanors charges. Among them are three gun charges, including unlawful discharge of a gun, and obstruction. Video allegedly of Banuelos firing two rounds from a pistol during the riot was used by federal agents to identify and charge him.

During the insurrection, Banuelos had climbed up on scaffolding, which was captured on video run by former Virginia State Rep. Derrick Evans, who was himself convicted for January 6 crimes.

Banuelos, who is 39, appeared in federal court in Chicago Friday afternoon. No bond was a set, and a detention hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.

Former assistant US Attorney in Chicago and Chief ABC7 Legal Analyst Gil Soffer said compared with most of the other nearly 1,400 people charged, the gun crime will complicate things for Banuelos.

"A bad fact that the defendant, defendants who have been found guilty of carrying or possessing a firearm have seen pretty strict sentences. Sometimes years in jail," he said.

Banuelos has a history of arrests; one by Chicago police in a 2014 drug case; and in 2021 he was questioned by Salt Lake City police about a stabbing death, but was not charged. At that time Banuelos reportedly told police in Salt Lake City that he'd brought a gun to the Capitol insurrection.

During questioning, Banuelos reportedly told police that he was the man with a gun seen in a picture taken on Jan. 6. That leads to questions about why it took so long for the FBI to come here to suburban Summit and arrest Banuelos this morning.

Banuelos was arrested at his sister's home Friday. She told an I-Team producer that he was homeless but not living with her. She also said federal agents had conducted a search but did not remove anything from her home.

After he was arrested, Banuelos became abusive to federal agents, according to prosecutors. The judge told him to behave.

One question that has not been answered is why it took so long to arrest this man. Someone called the FBI's National Threat Center on February 4, 2021, less than a month after the Capitol riot, and identified him. Banuelos had been pictured on an FBI website listing wanted rioters, and his name came up on numerous websites tracking January 6 suspects.

"It may simply be that the government was focusing prioritizing other cases that were already ahead of him in the pipeline, and maybe that they wanted to really nail down their evidence before they brought charges," said Soffer.

Banuelos is the first defendant of more than 1,360 individuals arrested in connection to the Capitol riot to be accused of actually firing a gun, though others have admitted to having firearms while on Capitol grounds.