A former President Donald Trump supporter from Pennsylvania was arrested after storming a Dairy Queen with a loaded handgun while wearing a clown wig.
During the incident, he claimed he was going to “kill all the Democrats because Trump was still president.”
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Jan Stawovy, a 61-year-old from Hunker, Pennsylvania, told police who confronted him that he “talked to God” and was a “prophet” who was working undercover with the Pennsylvania State Police on a drug sting operation.
He also told officers that he was working to “restore Trump as president” according to the affidavit reviewed by local TV station WTAJ.
Stawovy was arrested and police subsequently found two more loaded handguns in his car along with 62 rounds of ammunition.
Stawovy is now facing multiple felony charges including making terroristic threats and carrying a concealed firearm without a license, according to online court documents reviewed by VICE News. A date for his arraignment has not been set.
It is unclear exactly what triggered Stawovy’s actions on Saturday, but a review of his Facebook page shows that in recent weeks his behavior has become increasingly erratic. Stawovy had previously raised the possibility of a “civil war” breaking out in 2024 and had boosted lies about the 2020 election being stolen.
On Saturday, hours before the incident in Dairy Queen, Stawovy posted an image showing two letters he had received from two local churches barring him from attending their services anymore after disruptive behavior.
In one letter, the pastor of a local church outlined that Stawovy had arrived at a service on Sep. 4 wearing “a clown costume and full makeup [which] frightened many of our congregants.”
In the wake of Trump’s election loss in November 2020, Stawovy was immediately convinced that the former president had won. “Good morning. Good Tithings. Guns. God. And 4 years of President Trump!!!!,” Stawovy wrote on Dec.1, 2020. He has posted multiple pro-Trump messages since the election loss as well as multiple memes about gun control and protecting the 2nd amendment.
Stawovy has also posted some QAnon-linked videos referencing the “great awakening” and “deep state” plots to deny Trump the presidency. He has also shared posts from a number of high-profile figures within the QAnon community, including former Trump lawyer Lin Wood and evangelical pastor Greg Locke, who has repeatedly preached QAnon conspiracies from the pulpit.
On Aug. 7 this year, hours before the FBI searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, Stawovy posted: “Civil War in 2024?”
Trump’s increasingly violent rhetoric and embrace of violent conspiracies like QAnon have led to a number of attacks from his supporters. In the hours after he demonized the FBI for searching his home, one armed supporter attacked an FBI field office in Cincinnati.
And on Sunday, a Michigan man who believed QAnon conspiracies Trump’s lies about the 2020 election shot and killed his wife and critically injured his daughter.
