Four officers who defended the US Capitol during the January 6 insurrection have given emotional and angry accounts of the attack.
Four officers who defended the US Capitol during the January 6 insurrection have given emotional and angry accounts of the attack. C apitol Police Officer Aquilino Gonell told House investigators he could feel himself losing oxygen as he was crushed by rioters – supporters of former President Donald Trump – as he was defending the Capitol in Washington DC during the January 6 insurrection. Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone, who rushed to the scene, told the new House committee investigating the attack that he was “grabbed, beaten, tased, all while being called a traitor to my country.” Doctors later told him he had a heart attack. Daniel Hodges, also a DC police officer, said he remembers foaming at the mouth as rioters crushed him between two doors and bashed him in the head with his own weapon, injuring his skull. “I did the only thing I could do, scream for help,” Mr Hodges said. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn said one group of rioters, perhaps 20 people, screamed racial slurs at him as he was trying to keep them from breaching the House chamber. The new committee is launching its probe with a focus on the law enforcement officers who protected them.
