One suffered cardiac arrest, another suffered racist insults, a third was sprayed with irritating gas, crushed, hit with his own baton ... Police officers recalled Tuesday, July 27 the violence of the assault on the Capitol, at the opening of a parliamentary inquiry that divides Washington.
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The attack on the seat of Congress by hundreds of Donald Trump supporters on January 6 "
looked like a medieval battle
," Agent Aquilino Gonell testified, describing a "hand
-to-hand fight, centimeter by centimeter
”. "
I thought I was going to die like that,
" added the former soldier, wiping away tears. Having fought in Iraq, the agent said that the wounds sustained by the attacks of the attackers resulted in multiple wounds requiring several surgeries.
One of his colleagues, Michael Fanone, said he was "
caught, beaten
", targeted by an electric taser
,
to the point of having a brief cardiac arrest
.
Punching his fist on the table
,
he denounced the “
shameful indifference
” of some in the face of the trauma of the police. “
I was treated as a traitor to my homeland
”. “
At one point, I was pulled away from the other officers, in the middle of the crowd
,” he added.
They tore off my badge (...), they took my ammunition. They started hitting me with their fists and what looked like metal objects
”.
An attacker “
threw himself at me several times and tried to take my gun from me.
I heard people shouting in the crowd: take his gun and kill him with his gun,
”he continued.
"No one ever called me a nigger"
Capitol policeman Daniel Hodges, who had been filmed screaming in pain, trapped by attackers against a door, called them "
terrorists
". "
The terrorists had a wall of shields that they had stolen from the police, as well as stolen batons
," he said. A man then threw a shield against him: “
My arms were immobilized (...), I was defenseless. In front of me, a man sees that he can take advantage of my vulnerability, he grabbed my gas mask and used it to bang my head against the door
”. "
The man in front of me tore off my baton
," he added.
He hit me with it on the head and on the face, he cut my lip open and he hit me on the head again.
(...) I did the only thing possible, I called for help
”.
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African-American Harry Dunn, for his part, reported that the crowd threatened him because of the color of his skin, which traumatized him, as did the other police of color in charge of security at the Capitol. .
"
I saw the rioters use all kinds of weapons against the police, including pickets, bicycle racks they had taken down and all kinds of projectiles
."
He recounted how about 20 people circled him before calling him the epithet that represents the gravest racist insult to African Americans: "
Never, never had anyone called me a nigger while I was wearing the Capitol police officer's uniform
”.
"
We must never again allow our democracy to find itself as threatened as it was on January 6,
" he added.
A commission that divides
Like him, the witnesses and the elected officials, who spoke on Tuesday before this special committee of the House of Representatives also expressed anger at the efforts of certain elected Republicans to "cover up
or confuse the facts
", in the words of Liz Cheney. This Republican elected very critical of Donald Trump has agreed to sit on this commission, just like her colleague Adam Kinzinger, at the risk of being sanctioned by the officials of the Grand Old Party who boycott this investigation.
The leader of the Republican minority in the House, Kevin McCarthy, had denounced a "
political
"
appointment
which "
destroys the credibility of the commission
", adding a new episode to the pass of arms which has opposed in recent days Nancy Pelosi, president Democrat of the House of Representatives and Kevin McCarthy on the composition of this body.
Republicans say in particular that the parliamentary investigations already underway and the work of the police were sufficient.
At least 500 people have been charged in this case.
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The committee, which suspended the hearings at midday, has not yet announced the rest of its work program. It has the power to demand documents and summon witnesses, and several of its members intend to use it, which augurs well for further passes if they try to force Donald relatives to testify. Trump.