The suspect, identified as Ryan English, 24, was arrested outside the Capitol on Monday after police said the suspect admitted he was planning on using Molotov cocktails and a knife to kill Trump administration officials. Prosecutors alleged that English was inspired by Mangione, who is accused of assassinating UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last month.
English revealed his intentions in an interview with law enforcement, quoted in the charging document.
“I didn’t have a plan in my mind. I felt like I had to do this. I felt like I was on a mission. … Maybe I told myself to have faith and just see where this goes and I had been thinking about for this for a while because of Luigi Mangione. I have seen the response to that and that situation. … It was not an everyday thing and it extremely shook up everything,” the document quotes English as saying.
After initially taking issue with the assassination, English said his mind changed as he thought more about it.
“But as time goes on and as time went on, I started to understand things differently in my own personal situation, not regarding Luigi, regarding mainly the foremost thing is time—the feeling of running out of time, but of holy s*** it’s me. … I don’t think I’m the Messiah or anything. … It’s fate, it’s destiny, it’s whatever you want to call it,” prosecutors quoted him as saying.
English revealed that he has a congenital heart defect, giving him only about four months to live. After thinking about his mortality, the suspect began to think it was his “destiny” to carry out violence. He said he previously intended to flee the country.
According to the documents, English left his Massachusetts home by car to travel to Washington, D.C., with the original plan of using Molotov cocktails to murder Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), or burn down a conservative think tank located “two blocks from the White House.” Given English traveled to the Capitol, he was likely referring to the Heritage Foundation, which is close to the Capitol.
Regarding the think tank proposal, in an interview with law enforcement, English divulged a detailed plan where he would first sneak in on the guise of looking for an internship, then use his knife to slit the throat of a certain member “for revenge.” If that failed, he would burn the building down with the Molotov cocktails.
During the interview, English also reportedly floated ramming President Donald Trump with his car and stabbing him to death or killing himself on the White House steps.
The murders were intended to send a political message, according to prosecutors. After checking the news on Reddit in a library, having left his phone at home to avoid tracking, the target was allegedly changed to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
The plan was to immolate Bessent with the Molotov cocktails, throwing them at his feet, or to stab him to death with a knife he was carrying. English spent around an hour scouting out the Capitol, concluding that he would have to kill at least three U.S. Capitol Police officers to get in, before abruptly having a change of heart. English approached a Capitol police officer at 3:12 p.m. to reveal his intentions and turn himself in.
Police found a handwritten note in English’s pocket, apologizing to someone named Judith, urging her to “survive.”
“This is terrible but I can’t do nothing while these nazis kill my sisters,” the letter read.
On English’s arms read “No future no choice” and “There is only one Earth.”
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English apparently failed to understand what a Molotov cocktail was. First seeing significant use during the 1939-1940 Soviet-Finnish Winter War, the weapon consists of a glass bottle filled with gasoline or another flammable liquid, which uses a rag as a wick. English was apparently unaware that bottles of alcohol themselves are unable to ignite, using a bottle of vodka with a gray rag soaked in hand sanitizer as a wick.
The prosecutors noted that “it appears preliminarily that these Molotov Cocktails would have been unable to ignite because 80 proof Vodka is not flammable,” which became part of English’s defense. Prosecutors argue that English fully believed the objects were Molotov cocktails, so they should be treated as such.
