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In an article for The New York Times, Capitol Police Officer Aquilino Gonell described his experience on Jan. 6.
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Gonell was badly beaten during the attack, forcing him to eventually leave the police force.
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He said Trump incited the mob that nearly killed him and “he should never go near the White House again.”
Aquilino Gonell, a police officer who was beaten so badly during the Jan. 6 siege of the Capitol that he was forced to retire from law enforcement, said in an op-ed for The New York Times that he was betrayed by former President Donald Trump.
“While I witnessed the insurgents’ brutal attack firsthand, I was shocked to hear Ms. Hutchinson explain the extent to which former President Donald Trump incited the people who nearly killed me,” Gonell wrote, citing recent testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson during the House Investigation Committee hearings about the attack.
Hutchinson testified under oath that Trump furiously threw things — including his lunch — after talks with Attorney General Bill Barr that there was no widespread evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 election. Under penalty of perjury, she said he was furious that armed supporters weren’t. When allowed to attend his meeting, she defended rioters chanting “hang Mike Pence” and said the vice president deserved it, saying the rioters “did nothing wrong.”
Gonell described himself as furious at Hutchinson’s testimony and the former president’s disdain “for everyone but himself” as his armed supporters climbed fences, broke glass and attacked the Capitol police to disrupt election certification.
“I was sure I would die that day, trampled by the hordes of President Trump’s supporters who tried to stop the official transfer of power on his behalf.”
Experts estimate that 10,000 rioters were on the Capitol grounds during the attack. Five people died during the siege and four police officers defending the Capitol that day subsequently died by suicide.
Gonell has rejected Insider’s request for comment on this article.
“With our lives in danger, I would have had the right to use deadly force. But I didn’t want to cause a massacre. Over the course of the five-hour battle, my hands were bloodied from being crushed by a stolen police baton,” he wrote. the war veteran in Iraq: “My right foot and left shoulder were so damaged that I needed multiple surgeries to repair them. My head was hit with such force with a pipe that without a doubt I would have suffered brain damage if my helmet hadn’t been used.”
As a result of the injuries he sustained during the attack, Gonell said he still lives with chronic pain and was told by his doctor that he should no longer serve on the police force.
“The physical and emotional damage I sustained on January 6 not only cut short my career, it turned my life upside down. Five of my law enforcement colleagues died and more than 850 rioters were arrested. ruined by a man’s lust for power.”
While Gonell applauded Hutchinson and those who have come forward to testify about the attack, he described the behavior of Republicans who downplay the significance of the uprising and refuse to testify under oath as “fearful.”
Trump’s engagement must stop now. Not only should he be banned from moving to another government office, he should never be allowed near the White House again,” Gonell wrote. “I believe he betrayed his oath to defend the Constitution to the detriment of me, my colleagues and all the Americans he was tasked to protect.”
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