WASHINGTON — Federal authorities are searching for a former New Jersey National Guard police sergeant wanted on charges related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Online sleuths who go by the name "Sedition Hunters" have known Gregory Yetman's identity since early 2022, referring to him by the nickname #GreenHeavySprayer because he was seen in Jan. 6 video using a large sprayer on law enforcement at the Capitol, they told NBC News. The FBI posted photos of #GreenHeavySprayer on its Capitol Violence page, referring to him as 278-AFO, meaning he was wanted for assault on federal officers.
Yetman was named in a story in USA Today this year and gave an interview to the paper, in which he admitted being at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but insisted he wasn't the man seen spraying officers.
In a statement, the FBI's field office in Newark, New Jersey, said FBI Newark SWAT, Jamesburg police and the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office "are currently searching for a man named Gregory Yetman, wanted in connection with the January 6th attack on the US Capitol, in Helmetta, NJ," and were "asking the public with information on his whereabouts to call FBI Newark."
Video shot by NBC New York showed law enforcement officers searching Yetman's home and the surrounding woods Wednesday.
About 1,200 people have been arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, but the total number of people who could be charged is more than 3,000. The FBI has the identities of roughly 1,000 suspects who have not been arrested. The statute of limitations on most of the crimes committed on Jan. 6, 2021, expires in a bit over two years, in early 2026.
This week, a man known to online sleuths as #SuitMacer was sentenced to three years in federal prison for bear-spraying multiple officers on Jan. 6. Ryan Nichols, a Trump supporter who sprayed officers inside the lower west tunnel, pleaded guilty and was taken into custody until his sentencing.
