Wisconsin QAnon believer shot paintball gun at Army Reserve members in Pewaukee, threatened ‘mass casualty’ event, prosecutors say
A heavily armed Waukesha County man and QAnon believer who recently traveled to Washington, D.C., and promised violence there was twice taken into custody and released before being arrested Friday on federal charges.
Prosecutors say Ian Alan Olson, 31, of Nashotah, drove a car spray-painted with QAnon slogans to the Wisconsin Army Reserve Center in Pewaukee on March 15 and shouted, “This is for America” before he fired paintball rounds at two reservists nearby.
He also told intake staff at the Waukesha County Jail that he would “cause mass casualty” if he were released, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court.
“I am ready for this. How many people need to die for a message to get across,” he said, according to the complaint.
Olson, who owns armor-piercing bullets and several guns, has been charged in both the Waukesha County Circuit Court and the Eastern District of Wisconsin.
Federal prosecutors charged him with attacking U.S. servicemen on account of their service and assaulting officers. In Waukesha County, he is charged with two misdemeanor counts of attempted battery and one count of disorderly conduct.
The charges were first reported by the Daily Beast.
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According to federal court documents:
Olson on March 15 filled up his Subaru with gas and headed across the street to the Army Reserve Center in Pewaukee, which is an active military base.
His car was spray-painted with the letter Q as well as the phrases “trust my plan,” “OMW to DC” — meaning, “on my way to DC,” and WWG1WGA, denoting the QAnon slogan, “where we go one, we go all.”
Olson drove up to the side of the base and saw two reservists about 15 yards away standing in a fenced-in parking lot. He got out of his car and shouted, “This is for America,” and fired two or three paintball rounds at them before the rifle jammed.
The rounds didn’t hit the reservists, and Olson said, “’You’re lucky it jammed,’ or words to that effect,” according to the complaint. Then one of the reservists tackled Olson to the ground and held him until police arrived.
Prosecutors argued in court documents that Olson has shown he has “extreme anti-government beliefs and violent tendencies” and that he is a strong believer in the debunked conspiracy theory QAnon.
Followers of the false theory believe “the world is run by a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles and child-traffickers (allegedly largely comprised of prominent Democratic politicians, so-called ‘Deep State’ government employees, journalists, and Hollywood elite) and that President Trump is secretly working with Q and others to take down the cabal,” the complaint said.
After the 2020 presidential election, prominent QAnon adherents urged others to “trust the plan,” saying the results of the election would be overturned and the crimes of the cabal would be revealed to the world.
QAnon believers also await “the Storm,” or a “day of violence which will result in mass arrests, military trials, and executions of the members of the cabal,” the complaint said.
When Olson was arrested, he told intake staff at the jail that he had just returned from Washington, D.C., where he failed to deliver his message. He also said he would cause a “mass casualty” event and that people would remember his name.
“I’m going to cause mass casualty when I get out of jail,” he said. “I almost have everything ready.”
He also refused to speak with a mental health worker at the jail.
Pewaukee police searched his car and found a gas mask, throwing knives, police scanner, two-way radios, a Taser and ballistic military-style vest plates.
They also found a three-page, handwritten manifesto with multiple references to Q and “my plan.”
When police searched his home, they found an AR-15 rifle with a scope, suppressor, and seven magazines loaded with armor-piercing ammunition.
Olson’s family said he had several additional handguns that they would turn over to police.
Olson traveled to D.C., planned something ‘big’
Local investigators also discovered the U.S. Capitol Police in Washington, D.C., had admitted him to a hospital for psychological evaluation after he made concerning comments there.
According to a report from the Capitol Police, on March 3 Olson approached a member of the National Guard in D.C. and said he was “’maybe going to do something crazy stupid tomorrow’ and asked them not to shoot him.”
Then Capitol police stopped him. Olson said he was going to “test the National Guard tomorrow to see if they were loyal to the people or to the president.”
He explained that if he were shot by the National Guard, he would know they were loyal to the president. If they didn’t shoot him, it would prove the Guard was loyal to the people, Olson said.
Olson also said his actions would “be big” and that he was not afraid to die for his mission.
He said he would be “taken over by the Spirit of Christ and lead the people to unity” and “things can only be resolved by the barrel end of a gun.”
Records show Olson was admitted to a hospital March 5 and released four days later after being diagnosed with a “brief psychotic disorder,” according to an arrest warrant.
And while he was arrested again March 15 in Waukesha County for the paintball shooting of the Army reservists, he was released the next day.
Three days later on March 19, Olson was arrested again on federal charges in connection to the same incident.
Olson remained in the Waukesha County Jail as of Sunday. He is set to appear in court Wednesday.
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Contact Sophie Carson at (414) 223-5512 or scarson@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @SCarson_News.
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