Four officers gave horrifying testimony about the verbal and physical abuses they suffered from a pro-Trump mob storming the US Capitol.Pool / Getty Images: Witnesses at a hearing of House select committee on Jan. 6th attack on the US Capitol.On Tuesday, four officers who protected the US Capitol against a mob pro-Trump insurrectionists gave horrifying testimony about the verbal attacks and physical assaults they suffered during the riot. The officers spoke before a House committee investigating Jan. 6 Capitol attacks. They described being punched, kicked and electrocuted while they endured a torrent of racist and racist threats from rioters who tried to prevent lawmakers from certifying President Joe Biden’s electoral victory. DC Metropolitan Police officers Daniel Hodges, Michael Fanone, and Capitol Police Sergeants. Harry Dunn, Aquilino and Gonell were emotional as they described the violence that occurred on Jan. 6 and how it affected their physical and psychological health. They also expressed their frustration with elected officials for downplaying the event. Officials estimate that 140 officers sustained injuries that day from being trampled on, sprayed chemical irritants and beat with weapons made of flagpoles and metal barriers. Dunn and Gonell also testified to the racist insults and slurs Trump supporters used against them during their storming of the Capitol. Officers recalled hearing Trump supporters call them "traitors" while storming the Capitol. They also chanted "fuck the Blue." Video of Tuesday's testimony revealed the type of taunts and insults officers received during the attack. It included shouts like "Traitors! How do you live with yourselves?" "Die, traitors!"One rioter shouted "You should also be mad, fucking terrorists," while others said to the officers, "You are on the wrong side" of freedom. One woman shouted at officers who were defending the Capitol, "Fuck you guys! You can't even claim yourself American!" "You violated your fucking vow today. 1776These are some of the things the officers heard the insurrectionists shout at them during their attack."This nigger voted Joe Biden." Oliver Contreras - Pool / Getty Images Harry Dunn, a US Capitol Police officer, becomes emotional before he testifies in front of the House select committee.Dunn, an emotional witness, described how he and other Black officers were subject to racial slurs including the n word, while protecting the Capitol.Dunn stated that rioters wearing MAGA hats, shirts with the words "Trump 2020", and MAGA shirts told Dunn that Trump invited them to the Capitol. They were there to "stop the theft." He said that he heard them say, "Joe Biden's not the president." Dunn stated that, despite his efforts to keep politics out his job as an officer in law enforcement, his taunts led him to tell the rioters he had voted for Biden. "Does your vote not count?" Are you not mine? Dunn was recalled saying it to them. He said that this prompted mob members to spew racial epithets. A pink MAGA shirt-clad woman shouted, "You know what guys?" Dunn said that this nigger voted in Joe Biden. He said that the crowd began to chant "Boo, Fucking Nigger" after Dunn spoke. Dunn stated, "No one has ever called my a nigger when I'm wearing a uniform of a Capitol Police Officer," adding that other Black officers had shared with him the racial abuses they were subject to. Dunn was told by one officer that he had never been called the "n-word" to his face before Jan. 6. Dunn said that another Black officer told Dunn that rioters had told him to "put down your gun and we'll prove you who you really are.""You are not an American at all." Oliver Contreras - Pool / Getty Images US Capitol Police Officer Sgt. Aquilino Gonell gets emotional while he testifies in front of the House select committee.Gonell, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic who served in the US Army in Iraq in 1992, stated that the rioters saw his skin color through his mask. They told him that "you're not even an American." Gonell stated that he was more afraid to work in the Capitol than during his entire deployment in Iraq. He also said that nothing he had learned in the army nor as a law enforcement officer could have prepared him for the confrontation he faced on Jan. 6. He said that he was accused of being a traitor to my oath, and that he chose his paycheck over his loyalty to the US Constitution. He claimed that he was called a traitor by the crowd and demanded his execution. Gonell stated that some of the rioters "had the audacity" to tell him it wasn't personal. He claimed they used "menacing words" and threatened to overrun officers. Gonell said he heard rioters asking officers to join their cause, while also hearing "specific threats against the lives" of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (then vice president Mike Pence). Gonell described the violence as a "medieval struggle" and said that it was "horrific and devastating." He said, "We were punched and kicked, shocked and sprayed chemical irritants." Gonell said he heard rioters shouting that Trump had sent them, and asking officers to "pick which side." Gonell said that he heard fellow officers screaming in pain and agony as he was being crushed under the rioters. Gonell stated, "I felt like I was losing oxygen. Then I recalled thinking to my self, This is how you're going to die.""Kill him using his own gun." Andrew Harnik-Pool / Getty Images DC Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone testifies at the House select committee hearing.Fanone, a DC officer, said that he hears the words "Kill him using his own gun." Fanone recalled being "grabbed and beaten while being called a traitor for my country". He claimed that the rioters tried to take his firearm and threatened him with death. Fanone stated that they took his radio and ammunition and beat him with fists and other hard metal objects. Fanone said that some of them started chanting, "Get his gun and kill him." Fanone claimed that he was repeatedly shocked with a stun gun, and that his body camera recorded how he was "assaulted" and almost killed by the mob as they attacked the Capitol. He said that he thought he would be torn up or shot with his own weapon during those moments. Fanone claimed that he tried to appeal at some of the rioters humanity in his desperate state, telling them "I have children" Fanone was then carried to safety by a crowd member who stepped in to help him. Fanone stated that he was unconscious at this point and that he remained in that state for approximately four minutes. He was taken to the hospital, where he was informed that he had suffered both a heart attack as well as a concussion. Fanone stated that even though his injuries from the attack began to heal, he was still left with psychological trauma and anxiety after such an horrific experience."You will die on your knees." Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images DC Metropolitan Police officer Daniel Hodges testifies in front of the House select committee.Hodges claimed that he was able to keep his baton in the hands of a rioter, who tried to grab it. Another rioter shouted at Hodges, "You are on the wrong team!" Hodges recalls people mocking him as he marched with his colleagues to defend the Capitol. Hodges said that another woman called them "storm troopers" and others claimed they were traitors. Hodges, who called Trump supporters "terrorists", in his testimony said that one of them had thrown something heavy on him and kicked him to death. The crowd shouted "USA!"Hodges also said that he saw some mob members carrying pro-police Thin Blue Line banners while the crowd attacked law enforcement officers. Hodges claimed that he heard a man wearing a QAnon hoodie say, "This time to choose which side of history to follow," while another berated Hodges and told him to remove his gear and show solidarity with the rioters. "Do you think your little pea gun guns will stop this crowd?" Hodges remembered a man telling him. Hodges recalled a man telling him, "No, we're going into the building."Hodges also shared the harrowing moments captured on a now viral video in which he was crushed against a wall by a mob of rioters pushing back against a line police officers.Here's footage taken inside the "meat grinder" tunnel that Officer Daniel Hodges described on Jan. 6, 2016. Twitter: @ryanjreillyHe claimed that a rioter in the front grabbed his gas mask's front and used it to beat him against the door, making "guttural screamings" and "foaming at his mouth."Hodges stated that Hodges switched to removing the straps from my head and putting them against my skull, straining my neck.To make it easier for Hodges to attack, the man put his cellphone in his mouth. The officer stated that he also tore off Hodges’ gas mask, which exposed him to chemical irritants spray by the mob. Hodges claimed that another rioter grabbed Hodges’ baton and blasted his head and face. This left him with a broken lip and additional injuries to his skull.
