Police Officers Offer Harrowing Accounts at First Jan. 6 Panel Hearing

(L-R) U.S. Capitol Police Sergeant Aquilino Gonell, DC Metropolitan Police Department Officer Michael Fanone, DC Metropolitan Police Department Officer Daniel Hodges, and US Capitol Police Private First Class Harry Dunn, are sworn in before members of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol during their first hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, on July 27, 2021. Jim Bourg/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

Some who breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 assaulted law enforcement officers, used denigrating language, and made specific threats against then-Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), members of Congress heard Tuesday from some of the officers.

“The physical violence we experienced was horrific and devastating. My fellow officers and I were punched, kicked, shoved, sprayed with chemical irritants, and even blinded with eye-damaging lasers by a violent mob who apparently saw us, law enforcement—officers dedicated to ironically protecting them as U.S. citizens—as an impediment to their attempt to insurrection,” U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell told a congressional hearing in Washington.