After CPR and other lifesaving efforts inside a basement entrance to the U.S. Capitol failed, Jan. 6 protester Rosanne M. Boyland was moved up one level to the Crypt, where D.C. Fire and EMS Department paramedics continued resuscitation efforts for another 40 minutes, new security video shows.
Previously unreleased Capitol Police closed-circuit-television footage obtained by The Epoch Times adds crucial new details to the tragic story of Ms. Boyland, 34, of Kennesaw, Georgia, who died after collapsing outside the Lower West Terrace tunnel on Jan. 6, 2021.
The security video deflates claims made in the initial Capitol Police report that Ms. Boyland simply collapsed in the Capitol Rotunda at 5 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021, and that the officer who observed her “wandering around the Rotunda” immediately began cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
Nothing that the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) relayed to Ms. Boyland’s family from the Jan. 6, 2021, report turned out to be true, except that she was dead. As the security video conclusively shows, Ms. Boyland didn’t collapse in the Rotunda, and paramedics didn’t find her there receiving CPR from two unidentified Capitol Police officers.
Ms. Boyland’s mother, Cheryl Boyland, thought something seemed off about that report. At 4:23 a.m. on Jan. 7, she sent an email to the MPD detective and challenged the contention that her daughter collapsed in the Rotunda.
“I was shocked and angry that the police would lie about Rosanne’s death on their report to other police officers,” Mrs. Boyland told The Epoch Times in an email.
The new video only deepens the stark contrast between the indifference shown to a pulseless Ms. Boyland by police outside the tunnel and the unflinching trauma care she received from medics, police officers, and paramedics once she was brought inside the Capitol.
The video also underscores the desperate attempts to save Ms. Boyland’s life by a group of fellow protesters, who repeatedly begged police for medical help and began CPR themselves when no officers stepped forward.
However, it does nothing to explain why MPD Officer Lila Morris beat the unconscious Ms. Boyland with a walking stick while she lay supine and defenseless on the sidewalk.
“Once again, we are very appreciative of these people trying to save her, but come to the same conclusion as before,” Bret Boyland, Ms. Boyland’s father, told The Epoch Times. “She got the attention way too late.”
Mr. Boyland said in the initial wake of Jan. 6, 2021, the family was unsure if his daughter got any medical care after she had collapsed. The new CCTV video helped to answer that question.
“We were relieved to see they were actually trying to save her,” Mr. Boyland said. “Before seeing any of these videos, we just didn’t know they did anything and maybe just shoved her over in some corner and ignored her.
“This video is more comfort to that initial uncertainty we had and helped answer that original question of what did they do after they dragged her inside.”
Ms. Boyland traveled to Washington to attend President Donald Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021, speech at the Ellipse. She traveled with a friend, Justin F. Winchell, 44, of Marietta, Georgia. She was the last of four Trump supporters to die at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Ms. Boyland wandered into the Lower West Terrace tunnel at the Capitol at 4:18 p.m. that day. At the time, the crowd in the tunnel wasn’t violent, although serious fighting had occurred earlier.
‘I Felt I Was Going to Die’
“I felt it because I can’t breathe. That’s what it felt like,” protester Philip Anderson, who stood next to Ms. Boyland in the tunnel, told The Epoch Times in 2022. “So I turn around and run away. I try to get out as fast as I can.“If I had stood still, I honestly felt I was going to die. That’s what it felt like, ‘You’re not going to be able to get air inside if you don’t get out now.’”
Over the past 18 months, The Epoch Times has assembled eyewitness accounts, police reports, open-source video, and police bodycam footage as part of its investigation of Ms. Boyland’s death. The new Capitol Police CCTV video was obtained through access granted by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
Previously released police bodycam video documented the desperate pleas from the crowd for police to stop pushing protesters out of the tunnel. The unfolding tragedy was punctuated by cries of, “Save her,” “Oh, God, a woman’s down,” and “There are people trapped under here!”
Protesters, including Edward “Jake” Lang, Tennessee sheriff’s deputy Ronald Colton McAbee, and podcaster Villain Phoenix, attempted CPR on Ms. Boyland after she was pulled away from the tunnel mouth, where she lay unconscious.
“They collapsed inside that corridor from asphyxiation,” the podcaster said in a live stream broadcast on Jan. 6, 2021. “She couldn’t breathe. And they brought her out onto the main steps outside of that. Several people started doing CPR on her.
“I tried to get her carotid pulse for several minutes. I cut part of her jeans away so I could try to feel her femoral pulse, and I couldn’t feel her femoral pulse at all. I tried for a minute or two on both.”
‘We Were Attacked’
“She is laid out, maybe dead at this point, but they hit her at least two times in the body,” Mr. Winchell said in 2021. “And then they hit her once in the face, once right here in her nose, and some blood started coming out of her nose.“Like, this is not a joke. Like, we were attacked.”
Mr. Winchell told the Boyland family that Ms. Rosanne Boyland was struck by rubber bullets, a fact relayed to the D.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Bodycam footage reviewed by The Epoch Times shows a police officer firing pepper balls into the tunnel crowd at 4:20 p.m., just as police began an aggressive push toward the tunnel mouth.
Pepper balls contain PAVA—a powder-based irritant similar to capsicum that forms a small cloud upon impact. Fired by compressed air, the pepper projectiles travel up to 300 feet per second.
The pepper cloud can cause “skin irritation, serious eye irritation, and serious respiratory irritation,” according to one manufacturer’s product literature. “Exposure may result in copious tears, temporary blindness, burning sensation, and difficulty breathing.”
Stan Kephart, who has testified in court more than 350 times as an expert witness on policing issues, criticized the firing of a pepper-ball launcher in such an environment.
“Using a pepper ball in a confined space is criminally negligent since this tactic would likely cause panic in a compacted crowd that had little or no means of escape,” Mr. Kephart told The Epoch Times. “This is a basic of crowd control—always leave an avenue of escape.
“Second, the short distance in the tunnel makes it more probable than not that the safe distance rule for the use of this ‘less-than-lethal weapon’ was violated, making the discharge potentially lethal. Third, the dispersion of the pepper ball material was intensified by crowd compaction.”
Kephart also questioned the use of gas in an enclosed space because of the lack of easy egress and the tendency for the gas to displace the oxygen in the air.
Numerous protesters who urged police to stop pushing the crowd down the steps and tend to Ms. Boyland were shot in the face with pepper spray, overhead security video shows. The initial crowd desperation turned to anger that prompted some protesters to attack the police line.
At one point, the large crowd began chanting, “I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!”
After a few minutes of CPR attempts, six men carried Ms. Boyland back to the police line and set her in front of officers. “Get a medic!” Mr. McAbee shouted as police finally pulled her into the Capitol.
Two U.S. Park Police medics took charge of Ms. Boyland’s care. Chest compressions continued, and a breathing tube was inserted after seven minutes of rescue breaths.
An MPD officer fumbled with an automated external defibrillator, requiring a second unit to be brought in. Once the defibrillator pads were applied, the device didn’t recommend a shock but directed rescuers to continue chest compressions and rescue breathing.
A Park Police medic reported “agonal respiration, no pulse” just prior to 4:40 p.m. Agonal breathing is the medical term for the gasping that people do when they’re struggling to breathe because of cardiac arrest or another serious medical emergency.
Minutes later, he declared, “She’s getting cold.”
At 4:46 p.m., Ms. Boyland was moved to an improvised cart and wheeled up a ramp toward the Crypt, where paramedics were headed. Rescuers included Paramedic Sgt. Timothy Bennett, Battalion Fire Chief Christopher Holmes, a Park Police medic, and two unidentified Capitol Police officers.
The new security video picks up when Ms. Boyland was moved through the Crypt, one level above the basement. It doesn’t appear that the elevator was used, meaning rescuers carried the cart up the stairs to the Crypt level.
She was rolled through the Crypt past the Memorial Door. Paramedics with a gurney met the group at the end of a hallway that leads to the House Wing Door at 4:47 p.m. After placing Ms. Boyland on the stretcher, rescuers headed toward the House Wing Door but stopped short and lifted her down to the floor.
“When we got into the Capitol, they had her on some sort of dolly or pull cart, and they were pulling her down the hallway toward us,” EMS Capt. Ellen Kurland said in a Jan. 6 documentary produced by D.C. Fire and EMS. “We worked her for 30 minutes, and she had been down 20 minutes before we were even able to get to her.”
It was 4:50 p.m. Ms. Boyland had been down since about 4:22 p.m. Fire department personnel brought in cardiac monitoring equipment. An IV was started. Ms. Boyland was given epinephrine to improve blood flow to her heart. Chest compressions continued for 40 minutes.
“We moved her into the hallway where we could work on her on scene,” Firefighter Paramedic Sean Magee said in the fire department documentary.
A crowd of fire department personnel, police, and FBI tactical officers in full gear gathered around as rescue efforts continued, the CCTV video shows.
Ms. Boyland was given epinephrine seven more times, according to information released to her family by D.C. Fire and EMS. After the eighth dose, the supply ran out.
Ms. Boyland was placed back on the gurney and taken back through the Crypt to the Law Library, where the stretcher exited the Capitol at 5:33 p.m.
The ambulance didn’t reach George Washington University Hospital until 6 p.m. Ms. Boyland was pronounced dead at 6:09 p.m.
After watching the new CCTV video, Mr. Boyland said he’s left with the same haunting question: What if advanced rescue efforts had been started outside the Capitol when protesters begged for help?
“Look back to when she was laying outside when Lila Morris picked up that stick,” Mr. Boyland said. “If she would have started trying to help, maybe something would be different.
“Or if they would have started some rescue help even before that, when the other protestors were yelling she was down and needed help.”
TIMELINE OF EVENTS SURROUNDING DEATH OF Ms. BOYLAND ON JAN. 6
4:20:13 A police officer fires rubber bullets from the rear of the tunnel into the tightly packed crowd. A cloud of gas released by police in the tunnel acts on protesters and sets off a stampede for the tunnel entrance. Protesters spill from the tunnel like a waterfall and tumble down the concrete steps outside. The more police push from behind, the deeper the pile becomes.
