capitol and up the stairs towards the crypt. there i saw rioters who had invaded the capitol carrying a confederate flag, a red maga flag and a don t tread on me flag. i decided to stand my ground there to prevent any rioters from heading down the stairs to the lower west terrace entrance. that s where officers were getting decontamination aid and were vulnerable. i confronted a group of insurrectionists warning them don t go down those steps. one shouted keep moving, patriots. another displayed what looked like a law enforcement badge and told me we re doing this for you. one of the invaders approached me like he would try to get past me and head down the stairs. i hit him knocking him down. after getting relieved by other
after we retreated to the lower west terrace entrance, it was rough. it was terrible. everything that was happening to us, it was simultaneously. we did not have a lot of support. we had probably, like, 50 officers at most when we went back in. once we were there, we decided saying to ourselves, this is it, this is the entrance they are going to try and breach and we are going to hold the line and do everything possible, we were coordinating among ourselves, people, the few officers who were still carrying shields, we automatically positioned them in the front. some of the shields were taken and ripped apart from the officers hands.
was every single body here in this capitol, their intent was to get them out and hurt them. it would have been a much different outcome had we not stopped them, especially at the lower west terrace entrance. even though at that time we didn t know that that was there were other breaches in the capitol. our intent was to stop whoever was trying to come in through that door. those weapons that were used, those were common items, and the way they were using it was as weapons. let me ask in my final moments, sergeant gonell, and officer hodges, were you a guardman, i believe? yes. at anytime in your service, and i m a air guardsman, and you
real people, and most people don t know this, and i don t think even you know this, but your actions had a profound impact on me. so at 3:00 p.m. on january 6th while you were holding back the mob at the lower west terrace entrance i was holed up with congresswoman kathleen rice in a small office about 40 paces from the tunnel that you all were in. that s about from the distance where i m sitting here on the deus to that back wall. in that office in close proximity to where you all held the line i listened to you struggle. i listened to you yelling out to one another. i listened to you care for one another directing people back to the makeshift eye wash station that was at the end of our hall and then i listened to people coughing, having difficulty