WASHINGTON (AP) – Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards described to lawmakers Thursday night what she could only describe as the “war scene” she and other officers faced when the riots began. to brutally attack them on January 6, 2021.
“It was something I saw in the movies. I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Edwards said.
“There were agents on the ground. They were bleeding. It was slipping into people’s blood.”
“It was a butcher shop,” he said. “It was chaos.”
Edwards’ gross and sometimes explicit testimony was shown at the first public hearing on the findings of the House committee investigating the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
His memories of the day were the last moment in the spotlight of police officers who fought for hours as a violent mob of pro-Trump rioters, some armed with pipes, bats and bear spray, charged against the Capitol, quickly invading the overwhelmed. police force. More than 100 police officers were injured, many times, bleeding and bruising.
Over the shoulder, while Edwards testified, sat Capitol police officers Harry Dunn and Aquilino Gonell and Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone, all of whom testified about the violence that they suffered in a panel hearing last summer. There were moments in her testimony that made Dunn, a 13-year-old force veteran, cry.
Edwards’ testimony was accompanied by a barrage of unpublished images, testimonies and evidence that the committee has gathered over the past 11 months to document how the words and actions of then-President Donald Trump led to the assault on Chapters. The images show officers being beaten with flagpoles, trash cans and bicycle racks.
“My literal blood and sweaty tears were shed in defending the building where I spent countless vacations and weekends working,” Edwards said.
Edwards said he has worked on hundreds of civil unrest, but it quickly became clear that this was different. He asked his supervisor for a backup.
“I think we’re going to need a few more people down here,” he recalled saying, calling it “the euphemism of the century,” as officers were quickly outnumbered by hundreds of rioters.
She said she suffered a concussion after rioters forced a bicycle carrier over her head, pushing her back. “I was turned off,” he said, adding that he had fainted for months after the uprising.
But the moment Edwards remembered most vividly was the moment he saw his teammate Brian Sicknick become “ghostly pale.”
Sicknick, who was injured while facing rioters during the January 6 uprising, suffered a stroke and died of natural causes the day after the attack. His family members sat next to Officers Dunn and Gonell as Edwards described his injuries.
Before she could go help Sicknick, Edwards said, the mob sprayed her with pepper.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I think as a police officer, as a law enforcement officer that I would find myself in the middle of a battle,” Edwards said. “I’m not trained to fight. That day was just hours of melee combat.”
Committee Vice President Liz Cheney thanked Edwards and the other officers and their families for being there and assisting in their investigation. The Wyoming Republican noted the sacrifice the officers made that day with the limited resources and equipment they had been given.
“As part of our investigation, we will present information about what the White House and other intelligence agencies knew and why the Capitol was not better prepared,” Cheney said.
But Cheney rejected Republicans who have challenged the Jan. 6 panel to focus more on security flaws.
“We will not lose sight of the fact that the Capitol police did not provoke the attack of the crowd,” he said. “And we will not blame the violence of that day, the violence provoked by Donald Trump, on the agents who bravely defended you all.”
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