Feds searching for NJ National Guardsman who tried to pepper spray cops during Jan. 6 riots
The feds are reportedly hunting for a former member of the New Jersey National Guard who allegedly tried to pepper spray cops and protesters during the Capitol riots on Jan. 6, 2021.
During the near-insurrection, Gregory Yetman, 46, was filmed picking up a large canister of pepper spray that had landed near him and pointing it toward the cops trying to protect the besieged Capitol building, according to USA Today.
The FBI posted Yetman’s picture on their most wanted list, and said he was accused of assault on a federal officer, the outlet said.
Yetman — who was a military police sergeant in the Garden State’s national guard at the time — told USA Today earlier this year that he’d been at the Capitol that day, but didn’t commit any crimes.
He told the FBI the same thing after the riot, the outlet said. And he hadn’t heard from the bureau or its agents since then.
“Everything’s been resolved, everything’s good,” he said in early 2023, about two years after he and other fanatical supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed and trashed the Capitol after the Florida man’s 2020 election loss.
But now the feds — along with local and county law enforcement — are hunting for him in Middlesex County, the outlet said.
The search began around 9 a.m. Wednesday on Main Street in Helmetta, a tiny town about a half-hour northeast of the state capital of Trenton, according to CBS News.
Law enforcement was looking to pick him up on a warrant, CBS said.
But Yetman took off, and bounded into the woods, the Daily Beast said.
Local schools were told to shelter in place, and the feds shut down nearby streets. Tactical teams combed through people’s backyards and searched sheds in Helmetta on Wednesday morning, tossing flashbang grenades as they went, according to NBC.
The extensive law enforcement activity was “not the normal and absolutely unsettling,” Helmetta Mayor Chris Slavicek said Wednesday, adding that it was law enforcement’s goal to “detain this gentleman today.”
Yetman was last seen wearing a red jacket and a baseball hat, the outlet said.
The mayor said Yetman is “no stranger to this community” but also “isn’t out to harm any of the residents,” according to NBC.
Online sleuths reportedly identified Yetman in early 2022, according to NBC. They referred to him as #GreenHeavySprayer because he was using a large sprayer on the Capitol police.
The bureau asked people with information about Yetman to call the FBI in Newark at 973-792-3000.
