The House panel examining the Capitol riot called two witnesses Thursday night who had a first-hand look at the violence of Jan. 6, 2021. One was Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards, who was injured in the violence. The other was filmmaker Nick Quested, who was at the Capitol working on a documentary of the far-right Proud Boys group. Highlights from their testimony during the first public hearing:
- First injury: The panel showed video of Edwards being injured as she and other officers attempted to prevent a breach of bike racks set up as barriers. "I felt the bike rack come on top of my head," she recalled. Her head hit a concrete step as she fell, knocking her temporarily unconscious, per the Hill. Upon coming to, she resumed trying to hold back the protesters at a different location, with fellow officer Brian Sicknick and others, per the New York Times.
- More on Sicknick: Edwards recalls seeing Sicknick holding his head in his hands and looking "deathly pale," and she said she it appeared he'd been sprayed with something. Soon after, she got sprayed and tear-gassed as well. Sicknick died soon after the assault.
- Understatement: Early in the attack, Edwards joked about making the "understatement of the century" to a superior. "Sarge, I think we're going to need a few more people down here," she recalled saying.
- 'War scene': Edwards said it was like a "war scene," something out of the movies. "It was carnage. It was chaos. I can't even describe what I saw." She said it was "hours of hand-to-hand combat," adding, "I'm not trained in combat."
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