Nearly two years after being identified by online sleuths, the guy who federal authorities claim started a violent altercation with officers inside the lower west tunnel of the U.S. Capitol on January 6 was detained on Friday.
In 2021, Gregory Mijares was located by the internet “Sedition Hunters”. According to an FBI affidavit, the agency got a tip in October 2021 and spoke with Mijares in March 2023.
According to court documents, Mijares was detained in Crown Point, Indiana, on Friday and charged with felony civil disorder as well as two minor offenses.
The lower west terrace doors were used by Mijares to access the Capitol on January 6, 2021, according to video evidence. Some of the Capitol’s fiercest violence that day took place on the lower west terrace. While the situation was chaotic, rioter Rosanne Boyland died and several police officers suffered serious injuries.
Due to footage showing him donning his gas mask like a hat during a portion of the battle within the tunnel, Mijares was given the moniker “Gas Hat.”
According to an FBI affidavit, Mijares informed the agency that he hired a car in Indiana, traveled to Washington, D.C., with a friend, & stayed at an Airbnb in Virginia. They claimed that Mijares “admitted to breaching Capitol grounds, wearing a gas mask, witnessing law enforcement fire tear gas into the crowd, and engaging in physical altercations with police officers inside as well as outside the Tunnel.”
Officers holding the line at the tunnel on Jan. 6: pic.twitter.com/dJkyi5oADm
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) March 15, 2023
The FBI claimed that Mijares “held up his middle finger at officers” before opening a door that had been smashed by rioters, engaged them, and then “began to physically fight officers.”
A journalist’s shot of Mijares posing near the Capitol after the incident while not wearing his mask allowed online sleuths to positively identify him.
More than 1,100 people have been detained by the FBI in relation to the attack on the U.S. Capitol. More than 600 offenders have received sentences, with more than 370 receiving prison time and more than 120 receiving home detention.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office announced this week that the Department of Justice’s determination to pursue anyone responsible for crimes committed on January 6, 2021, “has not, and will not, wane.”