Capitol rioter arrested after being identified by his own mother

An Illinois man was arrested this Tuesday for his alleged participation in the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 after being identified by a middle school classmate and his own mother, Law&Crime reports.

Christian Kulas, 24, was snagged partly due to videos he posted on social media showing him inside the Capitol building.

“The video clip of people walking up the steps outside the U.S. Capitol Building includes a moment where the camera pans around and shows the face of the individual that appears to be operating the camera,” an FBI affidavit stated. “The individual depicted in the video is laughing. The individual is wearing a dark baseball type hat with ‘KEEP AMERICA GREAT’ in bright orange letters on the hat. The individual was also wearing a dark coat with a Burberry print around the hood of the coat.”

From Law&Crime:

Multiple people contacted the FBI and identified the individual depicted in the videos as Kulas, including one confidential witness who had “known Kulas for several years” because the witness had “attended middle school and high school with Kulas. That witness told the FBI they were “highly confident” that the Instagram account belonged to Kulas, that it was Kulas depicted as the person who filmed the videos, and that it was Kulas’s voice that said the words “storming the Capitol” in the final Instagram video.

Screenshots showing Kulas at the Capitol were posted to social media, where a user later identified as Kulas’s mother confirmed to the FBI that the images were of her son.

“In a response to a posted question about the photographs, a user of the social media service identified the image in the photographs as the user’s ‘son,’” the affidavit stated. “Law enforcement examined government databases and identified the name of KULAS’ mother and her phone number. The user of the social media service had a user ID that matched the name of KULAS’ mother. Law enforcement obtained subscriber information from the social media service about the user’s account, and learned that the user’s account was created using an e-mail address that also matched the name of KULAS’ mother.”

Kulas faces one count of unlawful entry on a restricted building and one count of disorderly conduct on U.S. Capitol grounds.

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.