Man Who Turned in Jan. 6 Rioter Father Tells CNN He’s ‘Terrified’ of His Release: ‘I’ve Picked Up a Gun’

A man who turned his father in to the FBI told CNN on Monday he was “terrified” of his release and had purchased a gun after President Donald Trump pardoned 1,500 people concerning the January 6, 202,1 Capitol riots.

Jackson Reffitt, whose father Guy Reffitt was sentenced to 87 months in prison for his involvement on January 6, told CNN anchor Erin Burnett:

I’m honestly flabbergasted that we’ve got to this point. I mean, I’m terrified. I don’t know what I’m gonna do. I’ve taken as many precautions as I could recently. I’ve picked up a gun. I’ve moved and I’ve gotten myself away from what I thought would be a dangerous situation in staying where I thought my dad could find me. Or other people, you know. People who are gonna feel so validated by these actions, by this pardon. I’m just so filled with paranoia about what could happen.

He continued:

My dad is still involved with these militias. He still talks with, you know, a martyr status. He has no change. He’s more galvanized than ever, that I’ve seen. My mom too. My sisters are waiting outside the jail cell right now and, you know, I feel for them and I know who they are and I love them, but I can’t feel safe and I’m sure hundreds of other families, thousands of other people that have been affected by these people and their actions, and what could happened when they’re released? I mean, who knows. I mean, my dad once called me a traitor and, you know, he said traitors get shot. So that’s, you know, all I can think about recently.

Reffitt went on to suggest that he felt regret for turning his father in to the FBI.

“I made a, you know, a very, very disgusting decision to inform authorities about what he was doing, and I still feel horrible about it every day,” he said. “And you know, my sisters are out there right now, and they’re rooting for him, and you know, I understand that, I come with a point of love towards that. Like, I want to be there for them, but I can’t. It just isn’t safe for people like me, you know, that have done the same things I have done.”

Reffitt concluded, “I love him, I just cannot feel safe around him. I cannot feel safe around people he knows. I cannot feel safe around the people my mother knows.”

Watch above via CNN.