Man accused of firing a gun during Capitol riot is arrested on
kidnapping and sexual assault charges
[November 11, 2025]
WASHINGTON (AP) — A man accused of firing a gun in the air during a
mob's attack on the U.S. Capitol has been arrested on charges that he
kidnapped and sexually assaulted a woman in Utah more than two years
before the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, according to authorities and newly
unsealed court records.
John Emanuel Banuelos, 40, was arrested in Illinois last month on a
warrant from Salt Lake County, Utah. He remained jailed in Cook County,
Illinois, on Monday, according to a spokesperson for the county
sheriff's office. The spokesperson didn't know if Banuelos has an
attorney.
Banuelos, of Summit, Illinois, was arrested in March 2024 on felony and
misdemeanor charges stemming from the Capitol siege. Surveillance video
captured Banuelos scaling scaffolding outside the Capitol before he
pulled a gun from his waistband and fired two shots into the air, the
FBI said.
The Jan. 6 charges against Banuelos were wiped away by President Donald
Trump's sweeping act of clemency in January. On the first day of his
second term, Trump pardoned, commuted the prison sentences or ordered
the dismissal of cases all of the 1,500-plus people charged with crimes
in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot,
Banuelos alluded to the possibility of mass pardons for Capitol rioters
during his May 2024 arraignment in Washington, D.C.
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"Well, President Trump’s going to be in office six months from now,
so I’m not worried about it," he said after a judge warned him that
he was “in too much trouble to be joking around” during the hearing,
according to a transcript.
Others accused of joining the Capitol riot have faced unrelated
criminal charges since Trump's pardons. A man arrested in June 2023
with guns and ammunition near former President Barack Obama’s home
also was charged with storming the Capitol. The man, Taylor Taranto,
was jailed for over 22 months before a judge sentenced him last
month to time served.
In Utah, Banuelos faces felony charges of aggravated kidnapping and
aggravated sexual assault, according to court records unsealed last
Thursday.
A woman told police that Banuelos drugged and sexually assaulted her
for over 12 hours in June 2018 after he approached her at a train
station and invited her to a party at his home. The woman said
Banuelos also struck her in the face, strangled her and threatened
to kill her, according to a court filing.
"The victim recounted that the day she met the defendant was the
first day she had experienced homelessness, and she was scared and
vulnerable," a police report says.
Approximately three months ago, DNA evidence linked Banuelos to the
woman's assault, according to police. Banuelos has been arrested
over two dozen times in Illinois and Utah, police said.
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