Ex-Capitol Police Officer Says Supervisors Went Silent During Jan. 6

Capitol Police responds, disputes Tarik Johnson's claims

Lt. Tarik Johnson talks to a group of Oath Keepers about a group of officers trapped in the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. Rico La Starza, Archive.org/Screenshot via The Epoch Times

A former U.S. Capitol Police officer on Tuesday evening said in a new interview that that his Capitol Police supervisors went silent during the Capitol breach on Jan. 6, 2021.

The former officer, Tarik Johnson, was spotted wearing a red “Make America Great Again” baseball cap during the Capitol breach, but he told Fox News‘ Tucker Carlson that he wore it in order to make his way through a crowd of pro-Donald Trump protesters. In the interview, Johnson said that he believes he was ignored by the House Jan. 6 Select Committee during its investigation last year.

“My voice is one of the first ones you hear on the audio transmission, so I did expect to get an interview sometime, but it didn’t happen,” Johnson said, referring to the House Jan. 6 investigative committee. “I guess the focus was on Donald Trump.”

Elaborating, Johnson said he did not receive any communication from top U.S. Capitol Police officials and added that the law enforcement agency was ill-prepared for the incident. His role was to evacuate members of Congress out of the Capitol after protesters breached the premises.

“We should have been better prepared that day, and we could have been better prepared that day if the information was disseminated like it was supposed to be,” Johnson said, adding that he had asked on radio for guidance but received none.

“The person that I thought was going to authorize the evacuation … didn’t do it,” Johnson told Carlson.

At one point, Johnson was seen donning a “MAGA” cap, telling Carlson he did it for safety purposes. Johnson added that he voted for Joe Biden during the 2020 election.

“I couldn’t say what would have happened walking through that crowd without it,” Johnson said.

But after video footage that showed him wearing the hat went viral, he was suspended indefinitely. Johnson added that he later resigned and lost his pension.

Johnson also told The Epoch Times in January that “there was no response from anybody at the Command Center,” adding, “I say even before I initiated evacuation, I say specifically, ‘We’ve got to start thinking about getting the people out before we don’t have a chance to.’”

“I heard no response. Then I asked for permission to evacuate,“ he said, saying that former Assistant Chief Yogananda Pittman didn’t respond. ”I heard no response.”

Because the U.S. Capitol Police’s top brass allegedly didn’t respond quickly enough, Johnson said he believes that it may have cost protester Ashli Babbitt’s life at about 2:45 p.m. on Jan. 6. An officer shot and killed Babbitt as she climbed into a broken window leading to the House Speaker’s Lobby.

In a statement to The Epoch Times on Wednesday, the police agency disputed Johnson’s comments.

“Former Chief Pittman was the then Assistant Chief of Police for Protective and Intelligence Operations at the time,” a U.S. Capitol Police spokesperson told The Epoch Times. “Chief Pittman’s team was in charge of protecting Congressional Leaders who were safely evacuated from the Senate Chamber.”

But the statement added that “Johnson did not report to Chief Pittman” and instead, “reported to the Assistant Chief of Police for Uniformed Operations ... Johnson made a general request over the radio, which was addressed by two different uniformed operation officials.

The U.S. Capitol Police spokesperson did not provide an exact reason for why Johnson was suspended. “Johnson was absolutely not disciplined for only wearing a red MAGA hat,” the statement said. “We are legally prohibited from discussing the details of personnel issues.

Acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman attends a press briefing about a security incident at the U.S. Capitol on April 2, 2021. Pittman announced that one police officer is dead after a man rammed his vehicle into a Capitol barricade. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Other Details

“Since you were there on January 6, what did you think of the job of the January 6 Committee?” Carlson also asked Johnson on Tuesday.

“I prayed almost daily that they would get to me,” Johnson said in response. “I was never asked to testify… I was never asked by anybody connected to the January 6 Committee to testify. I asked myself why every day, and every day I might have a different answer. But, you know, pretty much they focused on Donald Trump and not the failures of the Capitol Police.”

As an officer on the ground during the breach, Johnson noted that some of those who breached the Capitol “didn’t commit violence and some of those people didn’t plan on it.”

“I think that some people there had planned on being violent, some people may have turned violent after what they were going through,” Johnson explained to Carlson. ‘I think that people wanted to support their president, they wanted to—some of those people wanted just to support him. And some of those people didn’t commit violence and some of those people didn’t plan on it.”