The chief spoke about the deadly number of the attack on the US Capitol.
Washington, DC’s chief police officer, said the attack on the US Capitol exposed “weaknesses in the security of the nation’s safest city” during a closed-door congressional meeting on Tuesday.
“I was surprised by the lukewarm response from the Army Department, which was reluctant to send the DC National Guard to the Capitol,” Metropolitan Police Department chief Robert Contee told the House Appropriations Committee in a written statement obtained by ABC News. “While I certainly understand the importance of planning and public perception – the factors cited by the team in the call – these issues become secondary when you are watching your employees, far fewer than the crowd, being physically assaulted.”
“I was able to quickly deploy my strength and issue guidelines to them while on the field and I was honestly shocked that the National Guard could not – or would not – do the same,” he added.
Contee spoke of the deadly number of the January 6 attack on the Capitol, noting that five people – including Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick – died as a result of the siege. He also revealed that an MPD officer, whom he identified as Jeffery Smith, later died of suicide. He is one of two policemen who responded to dying by suicide after the attack – the other is Capitol Police officer Howard Liebengood, according to Contee.
Among the more than 1,000 MPD officers who responded, 65 were injured during the riot, Contee said.
“Other damages from this traumatic day will be widely felt, but possibly unrecognized,” said Contee’s testimony. “Law enforcement training does not anticipate or prepare for hours of hand-to-hand combat. Even brief physical struggles are physically and emotionally draining.”
The acting US Capitol Police chief apologized to lawmakers during Tuesday’s briefing for not being prepared for the attack any more.
“Let me be clear: the Department should be better prepared for this attack,” Acting Chief Yogananda Pittman told the House Appropriations Committee, in initial comments obtained by ABC News. “We knew that there was a great potential for violence and that Congress was the target.”
“I am here to offer my sincerest apologies on behalf of the Department,” she said in the comments.
Pittman confirmed that the department’s supervisory panel, the Capitol Police Council, rejected a request by then Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund two days before the mutiny for National Guard troops.
The Washington Post previously reported that the Capitol Police request was rejected by Congressional security officials because they anticipated that House and Senate leaders would not want troops stationed around the Capitol.
Capitol Police activated more officers to work on January 6 in anticipation of the violence – including a SWAT team and civil unrest units – but “we haven’t done enough,” said Pittman.
Sund also asked for permission to bring the National Guard on January 6, but he did not get authorization from the council “for more than an hour,” Pittman told the House committee.
Pittman also called the Capitol attack “a terrorist attack by tens of thousands of insurrectionists determined to prevent certification of the Electoral College’s votes, the Department failed to meet its own high standards, as well as its own.”
“I believe that certain challenges the Department faced on the day of the attack could have been overcome with additional preparation,” she writes.
Pittman also said that once the Capitol was breached, its focus was on the safety of members and leadership.
A well-known source confirmed that the chiefs and deputy chiefs were silent on January 6. None of them took control of the radio, the source said, and when officers sought leadership, there was none.
Capitol Police Union President Gus Papathanasiou told ABC News that there is currently no vote of no confidence against the department’s interim chief and senior leadership.
“Officials have asked for a vote of censure since January 6,” said Papathanasiou. “At the moment, we haven’t started a vote of censure. That doesn’t mean we can’t think about it. There is a big difference.”