Police injuries, including concussions, show scope of violence in Capitol riot

An officer lost the tip of his right index finger. Others were smashed on the head with baseball bats, flagpoles and pipes. Another lost consciousness after protesters used a metal barrier to push it up the stairs as they tried to reach the Capitol steps during the January 6 attack.

“We don’t need to hurt you – why are you on our way?” a rowdy told the officer as he helped her to her feet, according to court documents. She tried to regroup, but passed out when she made an arrest hours later. The doctors determined that she had a concussion.

A little over a month after the siege of the Capitol, a more complete picture of the injuries sustained by the police emerged from court documents, images revealed at the impeachment trial of former President Donald J. Trump, reports provided by police officers and interviews with police officers and experts.

The attack on the Capitol resulted in one of the worst injured law enforcement days in the United States since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. At least 138 police officers – 73 from the Capitol Police and 65 from the Washington Metropolitan Police Department – were injured, the departments said. They ranged from bruises and lacerations to more serious injuries, such as bruises, rib fractures, burns and even a mild heart attack.

A Capitol Police officer, Brian D. Sicknick, was killed, and investigators are increasingly focused on whether chemical irritants were a factor in his death, according to a senior law enforcement official. Capitol Police said in a statement that Officer Sicknick died of injuries sustained “while physically engaging with protesters”. Two police officers involved in the response died of suicide, local police said.

The number of wounded does not represent the dozens, if hundreds, of police officers that police officers estimate will suffer in the years to come with post-traumatic stress disorder and the dozens who probably contracted the coronavirus from unmasked Trump supporters who invaded the Capitol, said experts and employees.

At least 38 Capitol police officers tested positive for or were exposed to coronavirus, said Representative David Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat and House impeachment manager, on Thursday. Nearly 200 members of the National Guard who were assigned to protect the Capitol in the weeks after the siege were also positive, he said.

“If you’re a police officer and get into a fight, it can last five minutes, but these guys were in battle for four to five hours,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a nonprofit organization that advises departments across the country on management and tactics.

“It would be difficult to find another day in history like this,” he said, “when the police found this level of violence at an event.”

The horror of the siege – which officials described as “medieval” because of raw hand-to-hand combat and the use of blunt objects as weapons – received renewed attention this week at Trump’s impeachment trial. House managers repeatedly raised their wounds as they revealed new video and audio to argue that Trump incited his supporters to invade the Capitol while lawmakers certified his electoral defeat.

At Thursday’s trial, Cicilline listed a litany of wounded that exposed the effects of the siege on police officers: concussions, irritated lungs and injuries from repeated blows from bats, poles and clubs.

“Capitol police officers also suffered injuries that will stay with them for the rest of their lives,” he said.

Washington police officers who served in Iraq said the Capitol rebellion “was more frightening to them than their time in combat,” said Cicilline, citing Metropolitan Police Chief Robert J. Contee III.

Mr. Cicilline then played clips of protesters shouting to Capitol officials: “Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump! Traitor, traitor, traitor! “

No department has provided details on the types of injuries or the number of police officers who may have contracted the coronavirus. But a small part of the injuries are serious and will require months of recovery, said Patrick A. Burke, executive director of the Washington, DC Police Foundation.

“Most are bruises and sprains, but a policeman had a mild heart attack after he was hit by a stun gun several times and had to be removed from the crowd,” said Burke. “Others aimed laser at the eyes, which can cause long-term damage.”

Estimates vary as to the number of protesters who surrounded or entered the Capitol on January 6, but a review of the images shows that at least thousands have invaded the building. In addition to the blunt objects, some were armed with stun guns, bear spray and plastic handcuffs.

At one point, a riotous man took a fire extinguisher and threw it on the floor. A loud, explosive crash sounded, and the white powder from the extinguisher filled the air.

“Both the protesters and the police were momentarily shocked and everyone took a step back,” according to court documents. Protesters calmed down briefly and left the area, court documents said, although some went moments later to the Senate floor, where lawmakers recently fled.

According to the Justice Department, 219 protesters have been charged and dozens more are expected to be charged in the coming weeks.

Defenders of the officers blamed not only the protesters, but also accused police commanders of failing to adequately train and equip their forces for such an attack, while recognizing that the siege was highly unusual.

About 170 of the approximately 1,200 Capitol police on duty at the time of the attack were equipped with riot gear. Few officers had gas masks or other protective equipment.

Some without helmets suffered brain injuries, one policeman had two broken ribs, two shattered spinal disks, and another was stabbed with a metal fence post, said Gus Papathanasiou, the president of the Capitol Police Union.

Of the nearly 2,000 police officers in the Capitol police force, less than 200 have received recent training to deal with protests, Papathanasiou said.

“We had police officers responding that day who had not been training in disturbance control for more than 15 years,” he said.

A Capitol Police spokeswoman did not immediately return an email asking for comment. Its leaders recognized mistakes by commanders, including in their preparation.

In a video released last week for the month-long anniversary of the attacks, Yogananda D. Pittman, acting capitol police chief, said his priority was to look after the police.

“Our healing has barely begun,” she said.

“The damage goes beyond physical injuries,” she added, promising advice to police officers who needed it. “What happened was traumatic.”

But in a sign of the continued reverberation of the siege, the leadership of the Capitol Police Union on Thursday asked its officers to pass a vote of no confidence against the leadership of their department.

Despite the richness of the video of the rebellion, building a criminal case for the death of police officer Sicknick has proved difficult, according to the senior law enforcement official.

Although police officials initially said that Officer Sicknick was hit by a fire extinguisher, police sources and investigators are at odds over whether he was hit. Medical experts said he did not die of blunt trauma, according to a law enforcement official.

Investigators found little evidence to support the fire extinguisher attack as the cause of death, the official said. Instead, they increasingly suspect that one factor was Officer Sicknick being sprayed in the face by some type of irritant, such as apple or bear spray, the officer said.

Although the police regard irritants as non-lethal impediments to crowd control, they can cause physical reactions and disorientation that can cause injury.

The event, previously reported by CNN, complicated efforts to arrest suspects in the death of police officer Sicknick, as both police and protesters used spray in the siege. It is difficult to prove who irritated Officer Sicknick.

Spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi introduced legislation on Thursday to recognize the Capitol Police and other agencies that provided security on January 6 with Congressional gold medals, the highest honor of Congress, she said in a letter.

Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Katie Benner and Shaila Dewan contributed reports.