Zachary Sanns is a former Marine who stands accused of impersonating a federal agent during recent protests in Las Vegas.
Showing up wearing body armor, night-vision goggles, and armed with a stun gun and an AR-15 rifle, he allegedly attempted to comingle with police officers, who became concerned by his presence and started asking questions. According to the
"When he got back he was talking about his Purple Heart, going to sniper school, making up deployment stories and it caused a ton of friction," Elizabeth told Connecting Vets. She knew Sanns through her then-husband who was in the same unit and asked that Connecting Vets not use her last name. Sann's claims about having a Purple Heart, going to sniper school, as well as joining MARSOC turned out to be false, Elizabeth said.
That friction culminated with a fistfight between Sanns and his friend just prior to the Marine Ball, that Elizabeth said she witnessed.
"They got into a very bad fistfight, one choking the other," she said.
Connecting Vets reached out to the law firm representing Sanns, but did not hear from them by the time of publication.
Elizabeth described Sanns as someone who craved the spotlight and wanted to be the center of attention.
"I feel like he wanted to be like Mat Best because he would always talk about him. Sanns always felt like he was him and would pick up on his mannerisms after watching his videos. It was really weird," she said.
Elizabeth said she was not surprised when she saw Sanns posting videos and selfies from the protests in Las Vegas on Instagram.
"Zachary was known to lie about everything, all the time. Just recently when this unfolded, a few of us were in a group chat just talking about the stories he would tell and how he could not keep track of lies," she said.