«This is how I’m going to die.»
That’s what U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell thought on Jan. 6, 2021 as …
«This is how I’m going to die.» That’s what U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell thought on Jan.6,2021 as an angry mob stormed the Capitol and dragged him by the leg. «I could feel myself losing oxygen and recall thinking to myself, ‘This is how I’m going to die, trampled defending this entrance,'» he said last July before a House Select Committee investigating the riot that disrupted a joint session of Congress as it affirmed the results of the presidential election. On that January day, Gonell was assigned to guard the west entrance to the Capitol, which he’s described as a «medieval battleground». Nearly a year later, the emigrant from the Dominican Republic still can’t raise his left arm due to injuries he sustained during the attack, and the psychological wounds have also not healed for him or his family. «They see me cry. They cry with me. They see me in pain. And they also cry because they can’t do anything for me other than try to make me feel a little bit better,» Gonell told NPR this week. «This whole year has been horrific.» Gonell returned to work 10 months after the insurrection –- in an administrative position because of his hurt shoulder. He’s in therapy for his mental health, and as the one year anniversary of the riot approaches, he says what’s on his mind is «anxiety». «A lot of the officers have in mind the possibility of this being a recurring annual or every four year thing, which is why officers like myself are being outspoken about it, because we don’t want to go through this again,» Gonell said. Nevertheless, he says he would, if it’s required of him. «It’s mind boggling to hear some of the things that are coming from some of these elected officials. But at the end of the day, our job is to make them safe and make their work environment safer, regardless of our opinion or political affiliation,» Gonell said. While he’s considered leaving the Capitol force, Gonell has decided instead to try to move up in the ranks to lieutenant. Still, he says showing up to work every day is difficult. About a week ago, he was doing his rounds when he was arrested by the sounds of a construction crew dismantling metal scaffolding. «Every time that those metal rods hit the ground, it triggered me,» Gonell said.
