The John J. Duncan Federal Building In Knoxville Suffered A Broken Window On June 18, 2022, But The Accused, Mark Reno, Had Nothing To Do With It According To DHS Records.
Image: Mark Reno, genuflecting before the Eucharist in procession Image Credit: WBIR/YouTube screenshot
By Jennifer Hay [Knoxville Nobility] –
On November 1, 2022, the Justice Department (DOJ) issued a press release accusing a deceased Catholic man, Mark Reno of Jefferson City, Tennessee, of four different crimes. The DOJ alleged that:
1. On Jan. 22, 2021, Reno used a shotgun to fire at the door of Knoxville’s Planned Parenthood from his sedan (a black 2012 Ford Fusion).
2. On Dec. 31, 2021, he burned down the same Planned Parenthood, driving to and from the property in his pickup truck (a red 2006 GMC Sierra).
3. On June 18, 2022, he “used a .22 caliber rifle with an illegal suppressor to shoot the windows of the John J. Duncan Federal Office Building” from his pickup truck.
4. On July 3, 2022, he used the same .22 caliber rifle to shoot more windows of the John J. Duncan building from his black sedan.
The first accusation came nearly two years after the crime and wasn’t supported by persuasive evidence.
The second accusation—that Reno burned down Knoxville’s Planned Parenthood—is false. Planned Parenthood’s security cameras captured the real arsonist who was much thinner than Reno.
The purpose of this article is to address the third accusation—that Reno shot at the Duncan building on June 18, 2022, from his red pickup truck. This accusation is also false, even contrived, according to incident reports from the Federal Protective Service (FPS).
These same FPS records also inform the fourth accusation—that Reno shot at the Duncan building on July 3, 2022. However, for the sake of clarity, I will address that accusation in a separate article.
In order to find out what really happened at the Duncan building in the summer of 2022, I made multiple record requests to the Federal Protective Service under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). FPS is a branch of the Department of Homeland Security charged with guarding federal properties.
In response to my FOIA requests, I received incident reports and photographs related to the broken windows of the Duncan building on June 18 and July 3, 2022. I have made all these records available at the end of this article.
Indeed, a window on the Duncan building was impacted and shattered on June 18, 2022. The precise cause of the damage was never determined. The reporting officer speculated that it might have been caused by road debris which had been loosened by nearby construction:
“I did note the chipping of the curb and numerous small pieces of concrete on the street and sidewalk near the damaged window. Construction is being completed directly across Locust Street and the street has been narrowed causing multiple vehicles to run along or upon the curb. The construction occurring across the street could also have been involved in the cracked window, but no direct evidence provided me with insight into how the window was damaged (2022-06-18 FPS incident report, p. 3).”
There was no evidence that a bullet caused the damage. According to the same incident report, no one heard gunshots. Although the outer pane was shattered, the inner pane was undamaged. No bullets or bullet fragments were found. The duty officer investigated immediately, but “could not locate any projectiles or rocks in the immediate area of the window upon inspection (2022-06-18 FPS incident report, p. 3).”
Two days later, the reporting officer investigated and found no bullets:
“I also could not identify the item used to puncture the window. I searched the area on the exterior of the building and searched the small gap between the outer and inner panes of the window (2022-06-18 FPS incident report, p. 3).”
The reporting officer reviewed the security video, but he saw nothing that explained the broken window. He wrote:
“I reviewed the video footage from 0910 hours to 1040 hours, on the June 18, 2022 and was unable to identify the cause of the broken window from the footage (2022-06-18 FPS incident report, p. 3).”
Most telling, the FPS didn’t categorize the incident as a shooting. My first FOIA request to the FPS for records pertaining to a possible shooting at the Duncan building on June 18, 2022, returned no records. Here’s an excerpt from their response to my first FOIA request:
“This is our final response to your 8/5/2024, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Federal Protective Service (FPS) seeking records related to a possible shooting at the John J. Duncan federal building (710 Locust Street, Knoxville, TN) on June 18, 2022.
“We conducted a comprehensive search of files within the Federal Protective Service (FPS) for records that would be responsive to your request. Unfortunately, we were unable to locate or identify any responsive reports, documents, or records regarding a shooting that occurred on June 18, 2022. It is possible that no such event was reported to the BMC [Battle Creek MegaCenter].”
They didn’t find anything, because I asked for records related to a shooting. As far as the FPS was concerned, the June 18 incident wasn’t a shooting. However, the FPS incident report for July 3, 2022, referred to a broken window on June 18. Thus, I made a third request, specifically asking for records from June 18 which were mentioned in the incident report from July 3.
Not only was the June 18 incident not a shooting, but the FBI had no evidence that Reno was near the Duncan building at the time. A few days earlier, the FBI had gotten a warrant to track Reno’s vehicles, but they had no tracking data which placed Reno near the Duncan building when the window was broken on June 18. We know this because the FBI agent asked the FPS officer to review the June 18 video looking for both of Reno’s vehicles—the black sedan and the red pickup.
“SA [redacted] also inquired to footage from the first damaged window incident on July [sic] 18, 2022. SA requested I look for the 2012 Ford Fusion and an addition vehicle, and requested a copy of PSO [redacted] statement from the initial incident (2022-07-03 FPS incident report, p. 6).”
[Notes: “SA” stands for “Special Agent.” From context, the author meant June 18, rather than July 18.]
If the FBI had had tracking data, they would have told the FPS officers to watch the video for one of Reno’s vehicles or the other, but not both.
However, the FBI agents never got to see any security video from the Duncan building recorded on June 18, because by July 3, the media had been overwritten, and the footage couldn’t be recovered:
“I provided a copy of PSO [redacted] statement from the first incident but was unable to provide any video footage from June 18, 2022, as the camera system appeared to have already wrote over the footage. SA [redacted] asked if there was any way to recover the footage and I told him I did not believe it was possible (2022-07-03 FPS incident report, p. 6).”
The detail in the Justice Department’s third accusation against Reno indicates contrivance. No video or tracking data placed Reno near the property, but they alleged that he drove a specific vehicle—his red pickup truck. No bullets were found, but they alleged that Reno used a specific weapon: “a .22 caliber rifle with an illegal suppressor.”
Why did the FBI have it in for Mark Reno, a parishioner of Holy Ghost Catholic Church with no recent criminal history? What we know about this comes from two FBI affidavits—one by FBI Special Agent Jessi Mann and another by FBI Special Agent Thomas Calhoon.
According to these affidavits, Reno first drew the FBI’s attention shortly after the Planned Parenthood arson, because he attended Knoxville’s March for Life on January 23, 2022, driving a red pickup truck like the one the arsonist drove.
An undercover investigator for the Knoxville Fire Department (KFD) struck up a conversation with Reno. Reno told the investigator that he was a member of Church Militant Resistance, an action arm of the now-defunct Catholic media outlet, Church Militant. He also told the investigator that the neighborhood was a better place since the Planned Parenthood building had burned down. The KFD investigator passed this information back to the FBI.
On April 26, 2022, the same KFD investigator engaged Reno again at another pro-life gathering near the Planned Parenthood property.
This time, the investigator wore an audio-video recording device and surreptitiously recorded Reno on FBI equipment. During his conversation with the KFD investigator, Reno made brash, obscenity-laced statements threatening federal institutions and law enforcement. He also admitted to attending the protest at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
That secret recording made on April 26, 2022, was the beginning of the end for Mark Reno.
Shortly thereafter, KFD dismissed Reno as a suspect in the Planned Parenthood arson. (We know this because Assistant Chief Mark Wilbanks repeatedly told me during the summer of 2022 that they had no suspects.)
The FBI, however, began actively surveilling Reno, getting a warrant on June 13 to place tracking devices on his vehicles. On July 18, the FBI raided his home and arrested him for allegedly shooting at the Duncan building on July 3. Finally, although he was in good health when he was arrested, Reno died in federal custody on August 15, 2022.
No one is opening Mark Reno’s cause for sainthood. He was a flawed man. But he didn’t burn down Knoxville’s Planned Parenthood, and he didn’t shoot at the Duncan building on June 18, 2022. Nor do I believe he shot at the Duncan building on July 3, 2022.
I’m grateful to Taylor Breeden for critically reviewing this article and to U.S. Representative Tim Burchett and his staff for expediting my FOIA requests.
Records obtained by FOIA requests to the Federal Protective Service:
2024-08-13 FPS response letter to first FOIA query for June 18 records
2022-06-18 FPS incident report
2022-06-18 Photo 1 Duncan Bldg cracked window
2022-06-18 Photo 2 Duncan Bldg cracked window showing point of impact
2022-07-03 FPS incident report
2022-07-03 FPS duty officer handwritten report
2022-07-03 Photo Duncan Bldg damaged windows 2 and 3
2022-07-03 Photo Duncan Bldg damaged window 1 showing point of impact
2022-07-03 Photo Duncan Bldg damaged window 2 showing point of impact
About the Author: Jennifer Hay is the founder of Knoxville Nobility, a Substack publication for local pro-life, pro-family news and insights, including firsthand reporting on Knoxville’s 2021 Planned Parenthood arson.
One Response
Yup, lucifer’s FBI / DOJ witch hunt.