The Arizona man who wore a horned, fur-covered headdress and face paint as he and other supporters of President Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol is a Navy veteran, according to the service.
Jacob Anthony Chansley, who also goes by Jake Angeli and is known among online conspiracy theorists and far-right internet groups as the “QAnon Shaman,” served in the Navy for two years, from September 2005 to October 2007, his service records show.
Military.com was the first to report on his time in the Navy.
Chansley, 33, appeared in federal court for the first time in Phoenix this week after he turned himself in to an FBI field office on Saturday. He told authorities he traveled to Washington, D.C., because Trump called on “patriots” to attend the demonstrations.
He is facing several charges in connection with the rioting, including knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
While in the Navy, Chansley served as a supply clerk seaman apprentice aboard the since-decommissioned aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk from March 2006 to September 2007. He was last at a transient personnel unit in Washington State.
Task & Purpose reported that Chansley was kicked out of the Navy after refusing to take the anthrax vaccine.
Chansley was among the throngs of Trump supporters that breached the Capitol complex as a joint session of Congress met to certify President-elect Joe Biden‘s Electoral College victory.
Prior to the siege, Trump encouraged a crowd of supporters less than a mile away to march on Congress and display “strength” in supporting him.
Five people died amid the chaos, including Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, a former New Jersey Air National Guard staff sergeant, who died of his injuries a day after the mayhem.
Numerous participants in the Jan. 6 mob attack have since been found to have military connections, including Ashli Babbitt, the woman who was fatally shot by a Capitol Police officer during the chaos. Babbitt was an Air Force veteran who served for 12 years.
And the man photographed in tactical gear and carrying zip-ties on the Senate floor, Larry Rendall Brock Jr., was a former Air Force lieutenant colonel, The New Yorker reported.
Brock was arrested on Sunday in Texas and charged with knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building without lawful authority and with violent entry and disorderly conduct.
The Army is also investigating Capt. Emily Rainey, 30, for her involvement in the rally prior to the mobbing of the Capitol.
Rainey, an Army psychological operations officer, was still on active duty when she led a group at last week’s protests. She was, however, in the process of separating from the service after she had been given an adverse administrative action for a separate incident, Army Times reported.