The Capitol Police outgoing chief requested that DC National Guard units be put on hold in case his small force was dominated by violent protesters last Wednesday, but he was rejected by House and Senate security officials and a senior Pentagon commander, he said in an interview on Sunday.
Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, who resigned under pressure last week, said he made the request two days before Wednesday’s riot, following an intelligence review that indicated the demonstration would be bigger and more violent than predicted earlier – and repeated his request while watching the protesters attacking their officers.
“If we had the National Guard, we could have kept them under control longer, until more officers from our partner agencies could arrive,” said Sund, who served on the main post for less than a year, to The Washington Post.
In the end, the Capitol Police, outnumbered, were unable to contain a crowd several times their size, resulting in a violent invasion of the national legislature not seen since the War of 1812.
Five people, including a Capitol policeman wounded at the scene and another who died shortly after the attacks, died in the violence.
Earlier in the day, President Trump urged a crowd gathered near the White House to march on the Capitol “to show strength”, warning them: “You will never have our country back with weakness.”
Eventually, officials from federal agencies and the local Washington DC police force intervened on Wednesday night, cleaning the complex just before dusk.
In his first interview since the rebellion, Sund, a 25-year-old veteran of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department, said that six backup calls during the rebellion were rejected or postponed.
On a phone call at around 2 pm, at the time the complex was invaded, Mr. Sund and local district officials pleaded with Lt. Gen. Walter E. Piatt, director of the Army’s General Staff, for help, just to receive the general say he could not recommend the implantation to his boss, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy.
“I don’t like the image of the National Guard on a police line with the Capitol in the background,” said General Piatt, according to Sund.
General Piatt stepped back in an interview, saying he had no authority to send troops and that the city and the Capitol Police needed a plan for how the National Guard would be sent.
“The last thing you want to do is launch forces from where you have no idea where they are going, and suddenly it gets a lot worse,” he said.
General Sund also stated that House Sergeant of Arms Paul Irving and Senate Sergeant of Arms Michael Stenger seemed reluctant to increase the uniformed presence around the Capitol in the days leading up to the riot, suggesting that they were also concerned about the optics .
Both Mr. Irving and Mr. Stenger announced their resignations, under pressure from members of both parties.
None of them commented on Sundays’ allegations to The Post, and messages left in their offices were not returned immediately.
Sund added that he is concerned about the possibility of a repeat of the violence in the possession of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. on January 20.
“My concern is that if they fail to act together with physical security, it will happen again,” he said.