Trump supporters storm U.S. Capitol, with one woman shot and tear gas fired

Security officers point weapons at the House chamber door, which has had its windows broken from the outside by pro-Trump rioters Wednesday during congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
By
Rebecca Tan,
Peter Jamison,
Rachel Chason,
Marissa J. Lang and
John Woodrow Cox
Jan. 6, 2021 at 5:13 p.m. EST
As President Trump told a sprawling crowd outside the White House that they should never accept defeat, hundreds of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in what amounted to an attempted coup that they hoped would overturn the election he lost.
The chaotic, violent scene — much of it incited by the president’s incendiary language — was like none other in modern American history, bringing to a sudden halt the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
With poles bearing blue Trump flags, the mob bashed through Capitol doors and windows, forcing their way past police officers unprepared for the onslaught. Lawmakers were evacuated shortly before an armed standoff at the House doors. At least one person, a woman, was shot and rushed to an ambulance outside the building. Cannisters of tear gas were fired across the rotunda’s white marble floor, and on the steps outside the building, rioters flew Confederate flags.
“USA! USA!” chanted the would-be saboteurs of a 244-year-old democracy.
The Senate halted its proceedings, and the House doors were closed. In a notification, U.S. Capitol Police said no entry or exit was permitted in the buildings as they struggled to regain control. “Stay away from exterior windows, doors. If outside, seek cover,” police warned.
All 1,100 members of the D.C. National Guard were activated, and Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) imposed a citywide curfew. From 6 p.m. Wednesday to 6 a.m. Thursday, Bowser said no one other than essential personnel would be allowed outdoors in the city.

D.C. police stand between protestors and a counter protester as thousands of Trump supporters march in Washington, District of Columbia on January 6, 2020. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)
The mob had arrived hours earlier, charging past the metal barricades on the property’s outer edge. Hundreds, then thousands followed them. Some scaled the Capitol’s walls to reach the entrances; others climbed over one another.
On the building’s east side, police initially pushed the pro-Trump demonstrators back, but were soon overpowered and fell back to the foot of the main steps. Within a half hour, fights broke out again, and police retreated to the top of the steps as screaming Trump supporters surged closer. After the police perimeters were breached, the elated crowd began to sing the National Anthem.
For an hour, they banged on the doors, chanting “Let us in! Let us in!” Police inside fired pepper balls and smoke bombs into the crowd but failed to turn them away. After each volley, the rioters, who were mostly White men, would cluster around the doors again, yelling, arguing, pledging revolution.
Dozens soon broke inside, where they smashed windows and vandalized offices.
“MURDER THE MEDIA,” read a message written on one door.
“WE WILL NOT BACK DOWN,” read another left in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office.
Just before 3 p.m., a group of Trump supporters began running out of the southeast entrance.
“They shot a girl!” someone yelled.
A team of paramedics with a gurney soon arrived and a Capitol Police officer stepped aside to let them pass. “White female, shot in the shoulder,” the officer said as they hurried past. They emerged minutes later.
On the gurney was a woman in jeans, gazing vacantly to one side, her torso and face covered in blood. As the gurney was loaded into the back of the ambulance, pro-Trump protesters swarmed around it, screaming, “Murderers!”
Capitol Police officers with long guns pushed them back, and the ambulance drove off.
At 3:30 p.m., more law enforcement in riot gear arrived at the Capitol.
“Traitors,” Trump supporters shouted. “What’s your oath?”
Biden condemned what he called an “unprecedented assault” on American Democracy, “unlike anything we’ve seen in modern times.”
“This is not dissent. It’s disorder. It’s chaos,” he said. “It borders on sedition, and it must end now.”
For hours, the president made little effort to quell the violence he had instigated, finally sharing a video at 4:17 p.m. in which he told people to “go home” — while continuing to promote the lie that he had won the election.
For hours, Trump made little effort to quell the violence he had helped instigate, finally sharing a video at 4:17 p.m. in which he told people to “go home” — while continuing to promote the lie that he had won the election.
“We love you,” he told them. “You’re very special.”
Those who made it inside the Capitol took on a celebrity status when they came back out. A woman who said she had footage on her phone of Capitol police pointing guns at rioters was circled by dozens who wanted to see it. People traded what information they had about the woman who was shot inside. Some called her a “martyr.”
After she was taken away, the mood soured, though many remained joyous. “We’re making history,” one woman said as she strolled down Independence Avenue with friends.
Beneath streaming flags, including some that read “F--- Biden” and that depicted President Trump as the movie character Rambo, people loudly exhorted Jesus and chanted “USA.”
Many called friends and family and took videos.
“We weren’t violent before, but we are now,” a middle-aged White man said, talking into his cell phone. “There’s no going back.”
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