Sean Dunn walked out of federal court Thursday relieved he no longer faced the possibility of jail time. Better known as the D.C. “Sandwich Guy,” the 37-year-old was found not guilty by a jury of assaulting a U.S. Border Patrol agent with his now-famous submarine toss.
But Dunn is still wrestling with all the attention from his arrest and trial, and the knowledge that he altered his future with a viral moment of protest.
“The artwork, the memes – I’m glad that I could inspire people,” Dunn told HuffPost in his first interview following his acquittal. “I’m not comfortable with the ‘hero’ narrative. And it’s been… honestly, it’s been uncomfortable for me. All the attention has made me uncomfortable.”
Dunn, an Air Force veteran, is soft-spoken and describes himself as a private person — quite different from the guy who was shouting “fascist” and “shame” at a group of federal agents before bouncing a Subway footlong off the chest of Gregory Lairmore, a Border Patrol division chief. For context, the incident occurred at 11 p.m. on a Sunday in D.C.’s U Street NW nightlife corridor, near an LGBTQ+ club that was hosting a Latin night.
Phone footage of the encounter was already exploding on social media as Dunn was being held at a Metropolitan Police Department station. He was arraigned in Superior Court the following day before being released and returning to his D.C. apartment. Then things started to get surreal.
