Officer Caroline Edwards has just described how she was sprayed with pepper spray and tear gas while holding her position outside the Capitol in what appeared to be a war scene.
Edwards said he was in the bike rack at the bottom of the Pennsylvania Avenue walkway where a crowd led by Proud Boys figure Joseph Biggs was gathering.
“There were some who wore military suits. We could see people in bulletproof vests, things like that,” Edwards said. “You didn’t seem to know, very cohesive, but they had met there.”
Caroline Edwards. Credit: Bloomberg
Then a crowd chanting “f — Antifa” joined the group and began attacking the agents protecting the building. At that point, Edwards told his supervisor, “Sarge, I think we’re going to need a few more people down here.”
Then the crowd began to approach the barricade and the bicycle showcases. Edwards said officers began to fasten themselves to bicycle racks while waiting for security units, but were being dominated.
After giving first aid to the people, Edwards joined other officers holding the line.
“Suddenly I see a movement to my left and I turn around, and it was [an officer] with his head in his hands and he was ghostly pale, “he said.
“I was worried, my police alarm bells rang because if you spray pepper spray, you’ll turn red. It turned as pale as this sheet of paper.
When Edwards turned to find out what had happened, he sprayed his eyes with pepper spray. She was taken to be decontaminated by another agent, where they were given tear gas.
She told the audience:
I just remember my breath stuck in my throat because what I saw was just a war scene. It was something I had seen in the movies. I couldn’t believe my eyes.
There were agents on the ground, they were bleeding. I saw friends with blood on their faces.
He was grabbing people as they fell. You know? I was a butcher. It was chaos. I can’t even describe what I saw. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that as a policeman, as a law enforcement officer, I would find myself in the middle of a battle.
I’m trained to stop a couple of subjects and handle a crowd, but I’m not trained to fight.
And that day, it was just hours of melee, hours of dealing with things that went far beyond any law enforcement officer had ever trained and I just remember that moment when I passed behind the line and I only saw the absolute war zone. which had become the western front.