A gunman arrested near the home of President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, last Thursday was a Navy veteran who served in combat, branch officials confirmed to the Military Times this week.
Law enforcement intercepted Taylor Taranto running toward the former president’s residence in Washington, DC. Federal prosecutors said he obtained the Obamas’ address from a post on Truth Social by former President Donald Trump, the Associated Press reported.
Officials later discovered Taranto’s van, parked several blocks from the Obama home, loaded with guns and more than 400 rounds of ammunition.
Taranto enlisted in the Navy in August 2004, according to his personal records. He specialized in information warfare before turning to shipbuilding midway through his five-year stint in the sea service. He spent the last years of his service as a member of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 3 in Port Hueneme, Calif., reaching rank E-5 in 2009.
Taranto left the army the following year. Navy officials declined to elaborate on the status of his release, citing privacy law. His medals and decorations include a Combat Action Ribbon – awarded to service members who actively participated in ground or surface combat – and an Iraq Campaign Medal, awarded to personnel who served in the Iraq War. according to the Navy.
More than a decade after returning to civilian life, Taranto has fought the government he once fought for. Federal prosecutors say Taranto joined crowds marauding the halls of the Capitol on January 6. Sleuths Online first pieced together Taranto’s involvement in the Capitol Breach in 2021.
Federal authorities arrested the 37-year-old Seattle native on four misdemeanor counts on Thursday as part of an open warrant against him relating to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, according to The Associated. Press.
But the FBI, which was already monitoring Taranto’s online activities due to his involvement in the riot, began looking for him last Wednesday after claiming on its YouTube live stream that he was in Gaithersburg, Maryland. , for a “one-way mission”. according to the AP. He said he intended to blow up the National Institute of Standards and Technology, according to the Justice Department’s motion to keep him behind bars cited by the AP.
The following day, he continued his live stream from the Washington neighborhood where Obama lives — an area heavily guarded by the US Secret Service — and said he was looking for “entry points” and wanted to get a “good angle.” on a shot”. according to the note of detention.
Erin Smith, the widow of a Capitol Police officer who died by suicide after defending the building that day, sued Taranto and another man for causing an injury she says ultimately led to the decision to her husband to commit suicide. Taranto attended his co-defendant’s criminal sentencing hearing in DC in June, court documents show.
Later that month, Taranto saw a TruthSocial post from former President Donald Trump that featured screenshots containing an alleged Washington home address for the Obamas, NBC News reported. Hours before his arrest, Taranto reposted Trump’s message on the Telegram messaging app, adding, “We’ve circled these losers! See you in hell, at Podesta and at Obama’s,” the Associated Press reported.
John Podesta served as an adviser to President Barack Obama, chaired Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, and served as Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton. Podesta is also the main villain of the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory, a founding myth of the QAnon movement that falsely accused high-ranking members of the Democratic Party (including Podesta) of abusing children in the basement. of a DC pizzeria with no basement. .