Cops Are Hunting an Angry Gun Thief Who Mailed Trump a Manifesto

Last Tuesday, a man police are identifying as Joseph Jakubowski walked into a Wisconsin post office and bought a stamp for an envelope addressed to Donald Trump. As a buddy filmed him, the 32-year-old bearded guy with sandy brown hair stuck a 161-page manifesto railing against government, law enforcement officials, and religion into a mailbox in the parking lot.

"Revolution," he said. "It's time for change. Game time. Fuck the system."

For almost a week now, local and federal police have been looking for Jakubowski with increased urgency. They say he broke into and stole more than a dozen guns from a place (rather appropriately) called Armageddon Gun Shop, and then lit his car on fire, which suggests that Jakubowski—who's spent much of his life in House Speaker Paul Ryan's hometown of Janesville—may still be in the area.

Janesville public schools were closed on Friday, which is also when cops held a press conference alongside a member of the Secret Service. They alleged that Jakubowski has purchased a bullet proof vest and a helmet, and also threatened schools in his manifesto. That document, which is not available to the public, was apparently not partisan so much as broadly angry at the government and the people who run it.

"So there's really nothing specific where he's saying, 'I was wronged in this way' or 'I was wronged in that way,'" Rock County Sheriff Robert Spoden said. "It's just an overview that he feels that the government, and law enforcement in particular, are acting as terrorists and are enslaving the people and creating this environment that he finds unacceptable."

An FBI representative who spoke at the same Friday press conference declined the opportunity to identify Jakubowski a terrorist.

On Sunday, Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, canceled services after a suspicious man was said to have come by asking questions—though police do not believe it was Jakubowski, according to NBC News. Still, some authorities and religious figures in the area remained especially concerned that he might target practitioners. And on Monday, schools across the state put out a warning about the suspect, citing his alleged plan to "unleash the stolen weapons" in the manifesto.

Jakubowski has a long and storied criminal record. In 2008, he pleaded guilty to taking a cop's gun, according to Rock County court records. That same year, he was arrested for allegedly breaking a non-contact order after a domestic violent spat and for disorderly conduct, although those charges were eventually dismissed. He also has two battery charges––one of which he pleaded no contest to and another that was dismissed––as well as an epic amount of felony traffic infractions under his belt.

Meanwhile, the key to the case might be the unidentified man who filmed the post office video. "It's D Day," we hear him say from behind the camera. "Today is the day. So remember this face."

Police say that second man is a person of interest in the case who's been brought in for questioning multiple times thus far, though it's unclear whether he's been unable or unwilling to reveal where Jakubowski is—or what he might be planning.

"We're going to constantly revisit that individual and see if they can think of something else that may have been forgotten and what was the motive and some of those type of things," Spoden said Sunday.

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