A D.C. Metropolitan Police officer on Friday recalled getting beaten by a mob of angry Trump supporters during the Capitol riot last week, saying a smaller group eventually came to his rescue and protected him until help arrived.
Officer Michael Fanone told CNN that at one point during the Jan. 6 violence, the mob knocked him to the ground, stripped him of his police equipment, including his spare ammunition and badge, Tasered him several times in the back of the neck, and then tried to get a hold of his gun.
“Some guys started getting a hold of my gun and they were screaming out, ‘Kill him with his own gun,’” Officer Fanone recalled.
The officer said he knew in that moment that he didn’t have enough ammo to overtake the mob, so he decided to “try to appeal to somebody’s humanity” instead.
“I just remember yelling out that I have kids. And it seemed to work,” the 40-year-old father of four said.
Officer Fanone said a group within the rioters surrounded him until help arrived, saving his life.
“Thank you, but f—k you for being there,” he said bitterly.
Officer Fanone said the attackers came with their own weapons and had stolen equipment from police.
“We were getting chemical irritants sprayed,” he said. “They had pipes and different metal objects, batons, some of which I think they had taken from law enforcement personnel. They had been striking us with those.
“And then it was just the sheer number of rioters. The force that was coming from that side,” he added. “It was difficult to offer any resistance when you’re only about 30 guys going up against 15,000.”
A violent mob of Trump supporters who falsely believe the president won reelection stormed the Capitol building on Jan. 6 and temporarily halted the certification of President-elect Joseph R. Biden’s Electoral College win.
The violence ended in the deaths of five people, including a Capitol Police officer who was reportedly hit in the head with a fire extinguisher. A Capitol Police officer who was on duty at the riot and a Georgia man who was charged in connection with the riot reportedly died by suicide in the week following the violence.
Chilling: @DCPoliceDept officer Michael Fanone said on CNN that rioters went for his gun, saying “Kill him with his own gun”.
He told CNN, “It was all about self preservation…I “appealed to their humanity…I just remember yelling out I have kids”
pic.twitter.com/zUOafxRdBU
— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) January 15, 2021
