Fugitive Capitol rioter Greg Yetman, whose flight from justice sparked a multi-day manhunt in the woods near Helmetta, New Jersey with local cops and even a SWAT team joining the FBI’s efforts to cuff him, turned himself in to police in nearby Monroe Township on Friday morning, WNBC reports.
Yetman, 47, who served as a sergeant in the New Jersey National Guard until March of last year, was wanted for Assaulting, Resisting, or Impeding Certain Officers, Obstruction of Law Enforcement During Civil Disorder, Entering and Remaining in a Restricted Building or Grounds, Engaging in Physical Violence in a Restricted Building or Grounds, and Act of Physical Violence in the Capitol Grounds or Buildings, per an FBI arrest warrant unsealed Thursday. Per WNBC, he was in a home in Helmetta on Wednesday when he saw FBI agents approaching and fled, sparking the response in which SWAT teams set off flash grenades in spaces where they thought he might’ve been hiding.
It’s possible the overkill might’ve been simply precautionary because of Yetman’s military background, though much more likely it was bored suburban cops tired of beating the shit out of drunken townies in the parking lots of local Irish-themed pubs for their “action.” Easy to imagine the FBI agents were happy to sit back and let the locals play Cowboys and Indians with a suspect the feds didn’t think was armed and dangerous. And then fail at that too, which they did. In fact the cops probably scared Yetman even more than FBI and the only real motive he had for escaping them was so that he could safely turn himself in to cops in another town instead of getting shot.