Officers were doused with bear mace, feared death during Capitol riot

Officers who fought again rioters on the US Capitol were doused in bear mace and attacked with pitchforks as they battled “tooth and nail” for his or her lives during the violent rebellion.

Officer Daniel Hodges, who was captured within the now-viral video being crushed by a door as protesters stormed the constructing, feared he was going to be killed.

“That was one of many 3 times that day the place I believed: Effectively, this is perhaps it,” the 32-year-old officer informed ABC Information.  

“We were battling, you recognize, tooth and nail for our lives,” he added.

Hodges stated members of the mob ripped off his fuel masks, tried to gouge out his eyes — and even assaulted him with his personal baton.

“At that time, I used to be additionally, you recognize, sucking in OC and CS fuel [tear gas], so I used to be fairly disabled at that time,” he informed the outlet.

“I believed, you recognize, this is perhaps it. I would die and there’s nothing I can do to defend myself at this level. So I simply began screaming on the prime of my lungs for them to offer me a method out, get me a line of retreat. Fortunately somebody was in a position to do this and I used to be in a position to extricate myself.”

One other officer, Christina Laury, stated cops were being sprayed with bear mace — a considerably stronger model of pepper spray — as they held the road outdoors.

“Sadly, it shuts you down for some time. It’s method worse than pepper spray,” she recalled in an interview with CNN.

“It seals your eyes shut. … You’ve acquired to spray and douse your self with water. And in these moments, it’s scary as a result of you’ll be able to’t see something and have individuals which might be preventing to get by means of.”

Laury, a 32-year-old cop with the Metropolitan Police Division’s gun unit, added that cops were additionally being hit with steel objects.

“Metallic poles … I keep in mind seeing pitchforks,” she stated.

In the meantime, Officer Michael Fanone described how rioters dragged him out of the constructing and slammed him on the bottom.

“Some guys began getting ahold of my gun and so they were screaming out, ‘Kill him with his personal gun,’” he recalled within the interview.

5 individuals died during the siege, together with one Capitol Police officer.

Thus far, greater than 46 suspects have been charged in federal courtroom as authorities proceed to analyze the siege.