Officers of the DC Metropolitan Police aren’t often called to protect federal buildings. But when they’re called because of an emergency–like a Capitol Police officer in trouble or a suspected intruder on the White House grounds–they respond quickly.
As the Washington Post reports, the Metro Police officers who responded to calls for emergency assistance at the Capitol didn’t know what they were going to face. Michael Fanone was one of those officers. He and a handful of Metro and Capitol Police worked to push back domestic terrorists attacking the seat of American democracy at the West Terrace doors, the area scene in some of the most-viewed footage of the coup attempt.
Fanone had already had his radio and badge taken from him. As he tried to get into the building, he was sprayed with gas and bear repellant spray. Still, the 40-year-old father of five daughters and his fellow officers tried to hold the line against the crowd trying to break into the hall that would lead to the Rotunda.
Then someone got a hold of his helmet and he got pulled down the steps into the mob. People kicked and struck him. Someone started beating him with a flag pole flying the American flag. He heard people in the crowd yelling, “We got one! We got one!” Someone else shouted, “Kill him with his own gun!” And the crowd started chanting, “USA! USA!”
While being beaten Fanone, a 20-year veteran of the Metro Police, suffered a minor heart attack and phased in and out of consciousness.
Hundreds of Metro Police officers responded to the call for help at the Capitol; sixty of them ended up hospitalized with injuries running from irritations from chemical agents to concussions. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick ended up succumbing to his wounds. Another police officer took his own life in the aftermath of the coup attempt.
At 1 p.m., just ten minutes after the first insurrectionists jumped the metal barriers around the Capitol, Capitol Police called Metro for emergency backup. The Metro Police commander on the scene, Cmdr. Robert Glover, declared a riot at 1:50 p.m., clearing the way for police in riot gear to arrive on the scene.
National Guard units would not arrive for nearly four hours after that, at 5:40 p.m.
As many Capitol Police, US Secret Service and the few officers of the Sergeants-at-Arms for the House and Senate worked to secure the members of Congress and their staff, Metro Police officers were attacked by the crowd, estimated to be 15,000 people.
Black officers describe racial slurs being hurled at them. As insurrectionists gained access to other areas of the Capitol, police found themselves attacked by all sides and even positions above them, as material was thrown at them from the terraces. Some had their weapons and shields turned against them.
Glover, a 27-year-veteran of policing, saw some of the insurrectionists use military hand signals to direct attackers to positions, where they took up military formations to storm the building.
In another area of the Capitol complex, 32-year-old Daniel Hodges got his arm wedged between doors. Rioters stripped off his gas mask. Caught on video, Hodges yelled in pain, immobilized as his arm was trapped between the doors, and unable to defend himself.
One of the insurrectionists took his baton and started beating him about the face and chest. Another repeatedly sprays a chemical irritant in his face. He was trapped for less than three minutes, taking the punishment, before his fellow officers could push back the crowd to release him.
Although they were pummelling him and he thought he could die, Hodges did not pull his gun.
“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 said. “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.”