QAnon Supporter Attacks Army Reservists With Paintballs 'For America'

OK ...

Earlier this month, QAnon devotee Ian Alan Olson, 31, drove from Wisconsin to Washington DC in hopes of seeing Donald Trump inaugurated president of the United States of America on March 4. As you may recall, that didn't happen, and even most of the QAnon dopes had accepted it wouldn't happen by then. The day before, March 3, Olson approached a member of the National Guard and told them he was "maybe going to do something crazy stupid tomorrow." Later, he was stopped by a member of the United States Capitol Police and told them that he would be performing a test the next day to see if the National Guard's loyalty was to "the people" or to Joe Biden.

While he didn't say exactly what he planned to do, he said he would be "taken over by the Spirit of Christ and lead the people to unity," noting that "things can only be resolved by the barrel end of a gun." Whatever he did it was going to be "big," he said, adding that he was "willing to die to fulfill this mission."

His theory, he explained, was that if the National Guard were to shoot him while he was doing whatever he ended up doing, they were loyal to Joe Biden, but if they let him do the thing, they were loyal to "the people."

The words "trust my plan" were painted in bright orange on the front of his blue 2016 Subaru.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, he was swiftly whisked away for a psych eval.

Two weeks later, back in Wisconsin, he attacked some Army Reserve members with a paintball gun.

According to the criminal complaint, Olson drove his Subaru to the Wisconsin Army Reserve Center in Pewaukee, Wisconsin, on the morning of March 15, whereupon he attacked two Army Reservists with a paintball gun.

Two members of the U.S. Army Reserve on active drill orders, wearing Army OCP uniforms (camouflage), were standing nearby in the fenced-in parking lot of the reserve station. Olson exited his vehicle, shouted, "This is for America," and, armed with what appeared to be a rifle, but was in fact an orange in color AR-15 style paintball gun, shot two-to-three rounds of paintball projectiles at the reservists. The reservists were about 15 yards away from Olson. None of the projectiles struck the reservists.

His plans were foiled when the paintball gun got jammed up.

After Olson shot the projectiles, Olson's gun appeared to jam. Olson exclaimed to the reservists, "You're lucky it jammed," or words to that effect. At that point, the reservists, one of whom is a law-enforcement officer, tackled Olson to the ground and held him until law enforcement officers arrived.

It is not clear what Olson intended to accomplish with the paintball attack. Stick them with a big dry cleaning bill?

When officers searched Olson's car, they also found "a digital camera, SD cards, a gas mask, throwing knives, police scanner, two-way radios, a taser, and ballistic military-style vest plates." So either he was planning something far more messed up than attacking random Army Reserve members with a paintball gun, or he was planning on auditioning for the Jim Rose Circus.

He has since been booked on several charges including "Terrorist Threats and Attempted Battery and Disorderly Conduct." Upon arrest, he announced, "I'm going to cause mass casualty when I get out of jail," adding "I almost have everything ready." He also reportedly refused to see a mental health worker at the jail.

Olson is obviously a danger to himself and others, but it seems like prison might not be exactly the right solution for this kind of thing.

I understand not having a whole lot of compassion for these people, but it sure would be nice if we didn't live in a country where "maybe it would be more productive to get this guy some mental health treatment, because it sure looks like he was having a psychotic break" was seen as "being too soft." Or if we didn't feel so mad about other injustices in our criminal justice system that throwing someone like this guy in prison for the rest of his life didn't seem like a balancing of the scales. It would also be super great if we had some actual mental health infrastructure in this country, because it sure doesn't seem as though Ronald Reagan's "let's just close all of the public mental health facilities instead of improving them so they're not horrifying anymore" plan worked out all that well.

[ Milwaukee Sentinel-Journal ]

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