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Framed by the FBI? No evidence that Catholic man who died in federal custody shot at building
by Jenny Hay, LifeSite News:
The Knoxville Police Department (KPD) has no record of a shooting at the John J. Duncan federal building on July 3, 2022. And yet this is the crime for which the FBI arrested Mark Reno on July 18, 2022.
KNOXVILLE, Tennessee (LifeSiteNews) — The Knoxville Police Department (KPD) has no record of a shooting at the John J. Duncan federal building on July 3, 2022. And yet this is the crime for which the FBI arrested Mark Reno on July 18, 2022. Although Reno was in good health prior to his arrest, he died in federal custody 28 days later. After his death, the Justice Department publicly accused Reno of being the arsonist who torched Knoxville’s Planned Parenthood building a year earlier on December 31, 2021. However, Planned Parenthood’s own security video captured the true arsonist who was much thinner than Reno. Despite multiple FOIA requests, the FBI has refused to release any records pertaining to the alleged shooting or the arson.
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On May 16, 2024, this journalist received an email from Eric Vreeland, Deputy Director of Communications for the City of Knoxville. Vreeland wrote: “We have found no City records or reports regarding a July 2022 shooting at the Duncan federal building. We searched KPD’s records, consulted with the Investigations Bureau, double-checked with dispatch – we located no records.”
The Duncan federal building is in the heart of downtown Knoxville, on the corner of Locust Street and Cumberland Avenue—well within the jurisdiction of the Knoxville Police Department. Yet the FBI never made a courtesy call to KPD to let them know about a shooting within their jurisdiction.
Months earlier, the alleged shooter, Mark Reno, had drawn the attention of both the Knoxville Fire Department (KFD) and the FBI because he was pro-life and because his red 2006 GMC Sierra was a plausible match to the arsonist’s truck captured by Planned Parenthood’s security video. On April 26, 2022, an undercover KFD officer engaged Reno at a pro-life event and recorded their conversation on FBI equipment.
In this conversation, Reno made brash obscenity-laced statements threatening federal institutions and law enforcement. He also admitted attending the protest at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, though the FBI never found evidence that he entered the Capitol Building. A few months later, KFD dismissed Reno as a suspect in the Planned Parenthood arson, but the FBI continued to investigate him.
The FBI used the recording of the April 26 conversation to secure court authorization to place tracking devices on both of Reno’s vehicles—his red GMC Sierra pick-up and his black Ford Fusion sedan.
After tracking him for weeks, the FBI alleged that on Sunday, July 3, Reno left Holy Ghost Catholic Church after Mass, drove downtown, and used a .22 caliber rifle to shoot three windows of the Duncan building from his car while driving south on Locust Street.
However, there is scant evidence that this “shooting” ever occurred. No one heard gunshots. A security guard heard the windows break, but he didn’t call the police. The Knoxville Police Department has no record of the shooting. The windows were double-paned, but only the outer panes were said to be damaged; the inner panes remained intact. The FBI did not recover any bullets or shells from the scene.
According to the FBI, the only physical evidence linking Reno to the crime scene was his 2012 black Ford Fusion sedan. Citing tracker data, street cameras, and building security video, the FBI alleged that Reno was driving his car south on Locust Street, adjacent to the Duncan building, precisely when the windows were broken.
But the FBI was remarkably uninterested in Reno’s car when they arrested him at his home on July 18, 2022. They left it at his residence. The FBI didn’t seize Reno’s Ford Fusion sedan until October 28, 2022—days before posthumously accusing him of the Planned Parenthood arson.
Despite the lack of evidence that a shooting had occurred, Mark Reno was indicted by a grand jury, primarily on the testimony of FBI agents. The government’s exhibit list did not include any evidence from the crime scene, but included many photographs of weapons, ammunition, and books owned by Reno; these photographs were all taken at Reno’s home on the day of his arrest.
