Tuesday was an emotional day on Capitol Hill for the police officers who testified at the first riot committee meeting. The video above shows highlights of their testimony.
“I too was being crushed by the rioters,” Sgt. Aquilino Gonell said. “I could feel myself losing oxygen and recall thinking to myself, ‘this is how I’m going to die, defending this entrance.’”
Gonell, a former Army sergeant, went on to compare his experience on Jan. 6 to his experience fighting in the Iraq War.
“From time-to-time, I volunteered to travel on IED-infested roads to conduct supply missions for U.S. and allied forces and local Iraqi population, as well,” Gonell said. “But on January 6th, for the first time, I was more afraid working at the Capitol than during my entire Army deployment to Iraq.”
Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone described a rioter lunging at him and trying to take his gun.
“I heard chanting from some in the crowd, get his gun and kill him with his own gun,” Officer Fanone said. “I was aware enough to recognize I was at risk of being stripped of and killed with my own firearm, I was electrocuted again and again and again with a taser.”
Fanone said he got out of the situation by yelling, “I’ve got kids,” before someone in the crowd stepped in to help him out.
After being crushed against a metal doorframe, Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges said he was hit in the head with his own baton.
“At this point, I knew I couldn’t sustain much more damage and remain upright,” Officer Hodges said. “At best I would collapse and be a liability to my colleagues, at worst be dragged out into the crowd and lynched. Unable to move or otherwise signal the officers behind me that I needed to fall back, I did the only thing that I could do and screamed for help.”
Sgt. Harry Dunn, a black Capitol Police officer, described being called the n-word multiple times after telling rioters he had voted for President Joe Biden.
“One woman in a pink MAGA shirt yelled, ‘You hear that, guys, this n***** voted for Joe Biden.’ Then the crowd, perhaps around 20 people joined in screaming, ‘boo f****** n*****,’” Officer Dunn said. “No one had ever, ever called me a n***** while wearing the uniform of a Capitol Police officer.”
The officers testifying have become increasingly politically active in recent months. They went from office to office in May to lobby Senate Republicans to support an outside commission to investigate the insurrection. The Senate GOP rejected that effort.