- Thomas Baranyi was identified by the FBI after appearing in a TV interview, where he talks about breaking into the Capitol.
- Insider spoke to his former friends and co-workers, who described him as “quiet” and “disappointed”.
- Baranyi had a tumultuous childhood in New Jersey and walked away from his friends before joining the Peace Corps.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
Thomas Baranyi was part of the crowd that broke down the doors of the Senate chamber when the Capitol police shot the woman next to him.
She was later identified as an Air Force veteran and fervent Trump supporter, Ashli Babbitt. She became one of five people who died due to the US Capitol insurrection on January 6.
“It could have been me, but she came in first. It was one of us,” Baranyi later told a local television reporter in what has now become a viral interview.
Wearing a New York Giants sweatshirt and a pro-Trump baseball cap, the 28-year-old New Jersey native showed his hand, bleeding from the neck wound that killed Babbitt, in front of the camera while explaining what had happened.
Read More: ‘It was degrading’: Black Capitol custody officials talk about how it was to clean up the mess left by violent white pro-Trump supremacists
“We tore the scaffolding through flash bangs and tear gas, and we made our way through all the chambers just trying to get into Congress or whoever we could get in and tell them that we need some kind of investigation into it [election]”I told the reporter.” And what ends up happening is that someone may have died, and that is not the kind of government that we can have. “
Video footage captured the moment Thomas Baranyi stopped in front of the Capitol speaker lobby when Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt (R) was shot by the police.
Rise Images / ABC News
Baranyi looks pale and in shock. “They don’t care,” he said, pointing to the Capitol building.
“I mean, they think we’re a joke. Checks for $ 2,000 were a joke to them. There were people filming us, laughing at us as we walked down the street … It was a joke for them until we walked in and then suddenly, weapons came out, “he added.
Weeks after the deadly incident that shocked the nation, a more complete portrait of Baranyi, a former Peace Corps veteran, is beginning to take shape.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCuIxBzylyo
A troubled childhood
Baranyi’s adolescence was marked by the complicated divorce of his mother and father, the ensuing custody battle and financial insecurity.
Baranyi’s parents – Nancy and Drake – split in 2005 when he was 13. After the separation, Baranyi and her two younger brothers moved into a home in Hamilton, New Jersey, with their mother and grandmother, Elizabeth.
However, according to a witness statement made by Elizabeth in a New Jersey court of appeal, Baranyi’s mother was thrown out of the house after she was found “running around” with local contractor Jim Hranek.
Thomas’s grandmother – then about 70 – temporarily became the primary caregiver for the three boys. She described how she was compelled to do this because neither parent was suitable for taking care of the children.
A photo of Thomas Baranyi in the Hamilton High School West yearbook.
Amanda Rubi
In her testimony, Elizabeth cited Nancy and Drake’s stories of alcohol dependence and said that there were repeated incidents of domestic violence between parents.
Months later, Nancy decided to move with her children to her lover’s home. This was of concern to their father, who had discovered that Hranek had been convicted of children in distress, heard from the New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division.
Hranek kissed an ex-girlfriend’s eight-year-old daughter while undressed and under the influence of drugs. He pleaded guilty to jeopardizing the well-being of a child in the third degree. The incident occurred in 2000.
Drake then rekindled the custody battle in an attempt to prevent Hranek from having unsupervised contact with his children. Hranek was considered to have a “low risk” of recurrence after a psychological assessment.
While the two younger brothers remained at Hranek’s home, Thomas decided to live with his father in a “crowded” apartment – according to a legal document. A judge noted that although Thomas’s mother had achieved sobriety, his father was probably still using drugs and alcohol.
US Capitol officers try to prevent supporters of President Trump from entering the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Baranyi does not appear in the photo.
SAUL LOEB / AFP through Getty Images
Drake, a New Jersey Department of Corrections repairman, also struggled with his finances, bankruptcy and faced his property being repossessed on several occasions.
‘From a very young age, he was disillusioned with the government’
Baranyi studied at Hamilton High School West, a public school in Mercer County, New Jersey. Two colleagues told Insider that he was a nerd and exceptionally quiet.
While there, he was an active member of the Anime and Gaming Club. Amanda Rubi, who was also involved, told Insider that he was part of the “quintessential nerd group”. The social circle was also often referred to by others as “the misfit toy island,“according to another colleague.
Rubi was shocked to discover that Baranyi had been involved in the siege of the Capitol building because he had been very secretive during high school. “He wasn’t weird or anything, but he just didn’t say much,” she said.
She knew his parents were getting divorced, but she thought, looking from the outside, that “they looked like a relatively normal family”.
Baranyi’s best childhood friend, Patrick Marrazzo, saw a more combative side of Baranyi. “He was an aggressive boy,” he told Insider. “He even bit some guys.” He added that older children intimidated him.
“He liked aggression,” continued Marrazzo.
This, he said, led Baranyi to join the school’s football team. “It was an outlet for him. He was unhappy,” he added.
Baranyi has always been interested in politics
Baranyi was also teeming with political resentment from a young age. “He was disillusioned with the government,” said his best friend.
Marrazzo and Baranyi often talked about politics at the lunch table, in the school cafeteria. The discussions – taking place during the final years of President George W. Bush’s second term – focused on economic issues and the Iraq War, said Marrazzo.
Although these political talks were lively, they were never radical. “It wasn’t crazy at the time,” he recalled.
Read More: Trump’s allies are attacking the president and comparing the crowd he unleashed on the U.S. Capitol to authoritarian countries
Only after Baranyi left the school did his political views become more radical. Marrazzo said that in 2011, Baranyi told him that he thought 9/11 was staged and part of a fake flag operation in a Facebook message.
Shortly afterwards, Baranyi told friends about his plans to leave the radar. “He seemed to be in the early stages of almost being a doomsday trainer,” explained Marrazzo.
A few months after that conversation, Baranyi deleted his Facebook and stopped talking to his high school friends. He hasn’t been in touch since 2011, said Marrazzo.
After high school, Baranyi attended Mercer Community College. He was academically successful and in his second year, he was on the Dean’s List for academic excellence.
After completing community college, Baranyi was accepted into a prestigious teacher training course at The College of New Jersey in Trenton. While there, he had a keen interest in world history.
In 2016, as part of the school’s celebration of student achievement, he was invited to give a lecture on nationalism.
“He got angry fast”
It was in college that Thomas Baranyi met undergraduate physics student Rachel Fury. According to their father’s Facebook post, the couple became engaged in September 2017.
However, there is no evidence that a wedding ended up happening and a former Baranyi colleague told Insider that the relationship did not survive. Fury did not respond to several requests for comment.
Fresh out of college, Baranyi decided to join the Peace Corps in Albania. The 28-year-old worked with a team of international volunteers on a government project for young people from 2018 to 2019.
An exercise instructor from the United States Marine Corps observes recruits on the parade deck during the March 8, 2007 training camp in Parris Island, South Carolina.
Scott Olson / Getty Images
A former colleague of his, who declined to be named for this article, told Insider that the job required them to teach English to young Albanians – a task that Baranyi seemed to be engaged in and enjoyed.
But signs of hostility towards other team members emerged quickly, as the former colleague, who described his relationship with Baranyi as “similar to a brother”, said his “reserved” and “very obstinate” behavior made it increasingly difficult work with him.
“He reacted very strongly – negatively – to many things, some innocuous, some legitimately disturbing, but it was almost always an overreaction. He got angry fast,” the co-worker told Insider.
Read More: Before the Capitol’s deadly uprising, the Trump administration failed to follow the normal security manual used for events like the Super Bowl and the State of the Union
The former colleague also said that while other volunteers were eager to learn about Albania’s culture and values, Baranyi had no interest in mingling with the locals.
Although previous reports claim that Baranyi was discharged from the Peace Corps, this co-worker claims that he has ended his two years of service.
After the Peace Corps, Baranyi joined the Marine Corps in July 2020, but left active duty before completing initial training on Parris Island in South Carolina, a spokesman for the Army’s Training and Education Command. Marine Corps confirmed to Insider.
According to his former Peace Corps co-worker, who remained in contact with him on Instagram, Baranyi was thinking about teaching again.
Months later, he reappeared on television in front of the United States Capitol.
Baranyi Prison
In the viral interview, Baranyi declared his full name, which made it easy for the FBI to identify him.
Last Tuesday, Baranyi was arrested by the FBI and accused of breaking into the Capitol building and interrupting Congressional work.
Read More: Secret service protection would follow Trump if he went to prison, ex-agents say
His bail was set at $ 100,000, but he was later released on unsecured bail.
At a hearing in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, the judge ordered Baranyi’s release pending trial, on the condition that he hand over his passport. A United States government lawyer said he is considered a potential flight risk due to his long trips abroad.
Baranyi was also ordered to stay in New Jersey and away from DC, except for court hearings.
His next hearing is on February 3. If convicted, he faces fines or several years in prison.
Last month, Baranyi’s estranged father, Drake, posted photos on Facebook of Baranyi’s college graduation in 2017 and wrote: “Keep an eye on this boy, my eldest son …”
Drake Baranyi did not respond to a request for comment.