Capitol riot suspect arrested near Barack Obama’s home indicted on firearms charges

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER
Associated Press

A Capitol riot suspect who had guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in his van when he was arrested near former President Barack Obama’s Washington home has been indicted on federal firearms charges, authorities said Friday.

Taylor Taranto, 37, was already facing misdemeanor charges stemming from his alleged involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, and a grand jury indicted him on additional felony charges alleging he illegally carried a firearm without a license and unlawfully possessed a large-capacity ammunition feeding device, prosecutors said.

A magistrate judge earlier this week ruled that Taranto, of Pasco, Washington, must remain behind bars while he awaits trial because he would pose a danger to the community if released. Taranto’s attorney has said she will appeal that decision.

Taranto’s attorney, Kathryn Guevara, didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Friday on the indictment.

Guevara has said that her client had been receiving mental health treatment to overcome trauma that he experienced during military service. He deployed to Iraq while serving in the Navy and was driving a combat vehicle in a convoy that was hit by enemy missiles, she said

Taranto was arrested June 29 after prosecutors say he showed up in Obama’s neighborhood on the same day that former President Donald Trump posted on his social media platform what he claimed was Obama’s home address.

While livestreaming on YouTube in the neighborhood, Taranto told followers that he was looking for “entrance points,” was going to find a way to the “tunnels underneath their houses” and wanted to get a “good angle on a shot,” according to court papers. Officials said he was spotted by law enforcement a few blocks from Obama’s home and fled, though he was chased by Secret Service officers.

In his van — which investigators say he appeared to be living in — Taranto had two guns, 400 rounds of ammunition as well as a machete, prosecutors have said. Taranto’s wife told investigators that he had come to D.C. because of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s offer earlier this year to produce unseen video of the Jan. 6 attack.

Taranto’s arrest came the day after investigators say he asserted on his YouTube livestream that he was in Gaithersburg, Maryland, on a “one-way mission” and suggested that he intended to blow up his van at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

On the day of the riot, authorities say Taranto joined the crush of people who broke into the Capitol. He was captured on video at the entrance of the Speaker’s Lobby around the time that Ashli Babbitt was fatally shot by an officer while attempting to climb through the broken window of a barricaded door.

Taranto’s lawyer told the judge earlier this week that her client was talking about tunnels near Obama’s home “in a joking manner” because the subject has been fodder for conspiracy theories. She said in court papers that comments he made about getting the “the shot” or “angle” while near Obama’s house were only in reference to the livestream video he was taking at the time.