Triple homicide suspect attempted to assassinate Nicholas Fuentes before being shot and killed by police.

 

Police tape near the scene of the crime. Chicago Tribune. 

Triple homicide suspect apparently tried to assassinate notorious America First leader Nicholas Fuentes before being shot and killed by police. Chicago Tribune. The man, John Lyons, was a suspect in a triple homicide against the Mason family in Mahomet Illinois. He then drove to Chicago to the home of Nicholas Fuentes, who had his address leaked online in the wake of his controversial "your body, my choice" statement in the wake of the election. The suspect knocked on the door but was unable to get inside to Fuentes, who had called the police during his stream. Lyons then fled into another home and shot and killed two dogs that were inside before getting into and losing a shootout with police. No police were harmed but Lyons was killed. The incident comes after Fuentes faced arrest after pepper spraying another person who had showed up and his house and comes after the high profile assassination of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. 

The killer parked his car in front of my house and approached my door with his pistol drawn and what appears to be a crossbow. I was livestreaming at the time.

He rings the door bell, tries the doorknob and yells “yo Nick!” pic.twitter.com/5y1LF3Dv56

— Nicholas J. Fuentes (@NickJFuentes) December 19, 2024

My Comment:

Very strange story out of Chicago. Normally I don't cover this kind of story but given I have talked about Fuentes before and I think this incident may speak to larger issues, I think it is worth covering. This is a breaking news story though, so much of this will be speculation. 

This may be the only time I feel any sympathy for Nicholas Fuentes. He's a notorious figure and I have been disgusted with him ever since he and Milo Yiannapolus ambushed Donald Trump while Trump was trying to help Kanye West during his mental breakdown. I always thought that was an attempt to damage the career of Donald Trump and though most folks saw it for what it was, I have never forgiven either man. Since then he's been getting into all kinds of trouble and more than a few people think he's on the payroll of the government due to not being charged with his role on January 6th. 

He's also kind of an idiot. He's gotten all kinds of personal scandals and has also trolled the world. Folks were not happy with him when he made his "your body my choice" statement after the election. He was doxed and some crazy lefty lady ended up showing up at his house and got maced and had her phone stolen for the trouble. He has a ton of enemies on all sides of the political spectrum and even if ignoring his politics, he's kind of a joke. He's a right wing Chris-Chan, a notorious internet figure.   

But he also almost got murdered. To his credit, he was smart enough to not open the door, perhaps learning a lesson from the lady he maced. Indeed, she might have indirectly saved his life as he might have opened the door if that hadn't happened. Regardless, had the killer managed to get close enough to Fuentes I have no doubt that he would have tried to kill him, and given the guy killed three people and two dogs, I think he would have succeeded. 

It's unclear what the motive of this crime was. We have very little information on the family he killed or why he targeted them. It's even possible that he wasn't actually involved, though I doubt that at this point. What we can say for sure is that he was targeting Fuentes directly. Fuentes posted video that showed him saying "Hey Nick" and trying to enter his home. That shows that this wasn't some kind of random crime, but a targeted attack. 

What do I think happened? Well, regardless of his motivation in killing the Mason family, I think after that he probably drew inspiration from the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The suspect in that case, who has gotten enough attention already to be named again here, is now a folk hero for some folks on the left. My guess is that Lyons was going for the same thing. He wanted to get the same adoration and press that the suspect in that case is getting now and since he was, at best, going to prison for a triple homicide he might as well. It might even have been a play for jury nullification, as enough people hate Fuentes that they could hang a jury on the triple homicide, as sad as it is to say. That is of course speculation, but I am guessing we will find out the truth as the media catches on to this story.

I do think that we are probably going to see more of this, regardless of the actual motive. There has been a large number of high profile assassination and assassination attempts on public figures, mostly on the right or at least enemies of the left, including this case, the Brian Thompson murder and the two attempts on Donald Trump's life. The intense media coverage of these cases appears to be causing copycats and it may overtake school shootings as the go too outlet for angry folks looking to get famous. 

I also think that folks that are media personalities like Fuentes are at a higher risk. Fuentes apparently has security (unless he's just trying to grift on that) but a lot of smaller folks don't have that luxury. And all it takes is one disturbed person to get an address or work location and something like this could happen again. 

As for Fuentes himself, I am sure he will exploit this for sympathy and money. To be fair to him, he has a case this time, he was absolutely almost just murdered. But it's still frustrating that he is going to milk this for all it is worth. I am glad that he wasn't killed, even idiots like him don't deserve to be murdered over politics, but I also wish he would take the hint and get out of the public space. He's not someone that I like at all and I hate that I am in a position where I have to kind of defend him a bit.