Blinded, beaten, screaming for mercy: Police officers recount Capitol riot

Mitchell Willetts

Vastly outnumbered by an incensed far-right mob, some police officers realized the battle to quell the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot quickly was becoming a fight for survival.

Spurred by baseless allegations that widespread voter fraud cost president Donald Trump the 2020 election against President-elect Joe Biden, a large swath of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building.

Members of Congress were forced into hiding, dozens of people were injured, and five died as a result of the violence — including Capitol Hill police officer Brian Sicknick.

Officer Michael Fanone, a narcotics investigator with the D.C. Metropolitan Police, believes he came close to becoming a casualty, CNN reported.

After being Tasered in the neck several times, Fanone was knocked to the ground in the midst of a mob, he told the outlet. Dazed and hurt, there wasn’t much he could do to stop them from stealing his gear, including his radio, badge, and spare magazines for his sidearm.

“Some guys started getting a hold of my gun and they were screaming out, ‘Kill him with his own gun,’” Fanone told CNN.

He had to decide in that moment, should he pull his gun and fire first? If he did, there’s little doubt the crowd would kill him, he said. He thought of his four children.

“So, the other option I thought of was to try to appeal to somebody’s humanity. And I just remember yelling out that I have kids. And it seemed to work,” he told CNN.

Another group among the mob gathered around Fanone, protecting him until help arrived.

“Thank you, but f--- you for being there,” he said of the group.

‘The zealotry of these people is ... unreal’

Officer Christina Laury recalled the weapons rioters brought, from pitchforks and metal poles to bear mace — which was sprayed into her eyes, leaving her blind amid the fray, CNN reported.

“Unfortunately, it shuts you down for a while ... it seals your eyes shut,” she said. “And in those moments it’s scary because you can’t see anything and have people that are fighting to get through.”

D.C. officer Daniel Hodges, whose face has been seen around the world, screaming for help as he’s crushed against a door by a wall of rioters, told The Washington Post he felt defenseless.

One rioter ripped away Hodges’ gas mask and another grabbed his baton and began beating his head with it, he told the Post.

“The zealotry of these people is absolutely unreal,” Hodges said.“There were points where I thought it was possible I could either die or become seriously disfigured.”

Like Fanone, he considered turning to his service weapon out of desperation. But that’s what some in the mob might want, he decided, so he left his gun holstered.

“I didn’t want to be the guy who starts shooting, because I knew they had guns — we had been seizing guns all day,” he told the outlet. “And the only reason I could think of that they weren’t shooting us was they were waiting for us to shoot first. And if it became a firefight between a couple hundred officers and a couple thousand demonstrators, we would have lost.”

It’s possible police at the Capitol faced off at points with fellow first responders. Several off-duty police officers and firefighters have been identified as having taken part in the riot, Reuters reported.

Some Capitol Police officers are also under investigation for possibly aiding the rioters, though how deep their suspected involvement goes isn’t clear, outlets report.

Former Black officers from the department say a culture of racism exists within the Capitol Police, and that some officers may harbor sympathies for far-right groups and movements that helped carry out the Jan. 6 riot, ProPublica reported.

Others are calling the department’s overall competence into question.

“For weeks, these people had been talking about coming to the Capitol to do as much harm as they can,” Democratic Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton told ProPublica. “Everyone knew it. Except the Capitol Police.”

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