‘Might Be the End for Me’: Police Officers Recount Jan. 6 Capitol Attack

Protesters clash with police officers outside U.S. Capitol building in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images

The police officer who was crushed in a door frame during the Jan. 6 breach of the Capitol building said he thought he might die.

“That was one of the three times that day where I thought: Well, this might be it,” Daniel Hodges, a 32-year-old patrol officer in Washington’s 4th District, told WJLA. “This might be the end for me.”

Video showing Hodges screaming as he’s crushed against the metal frame went viral.

One rioter got hold of a gas mask he was wearing and wrenched it off and also used Hodges’ baton to beat him, the officer said. Another tried gouging his eye.

“At that point, I was also, you know, sucking in OC and CS gas, so I was pretty disabled at that point,” Hodges said. “I thought, you know, this might be it. I might die and there’s nothing I can do to defend myself at this point. So I just started screaming at the top of my lungs for them to give me a way out, get me a line of retreat. Thankfully someone was able to do that and I was able to extricate myself.”

Police later released pictures of the suspect who crushed Hodges and asked for the public’s help in identifying him.

Five people died from injuries suffered on Jan. 6, including U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick. More than 50 Capitol police officers were injured, along with dozens of Metropolitan Police Department officers.

Over 100 people have been arrested and over 200 suspects have been identified, FBI Director Christopher Wray told officials during a briefing on Thursday.

Damage is seen inside the U.S. Capitol building in Washington early Jan. 7, 2021. Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images

Washington police officer Christina Laury, 32, told WJLA that she and fellow officers did not understand “the magnitude and the amount of people that were actually there” when they arrived to help deal with those who stormed the Capitol.

By the time I got there, officers were already getting, you know, sprayed with whatever these individuals had, which I believe they had bear mace which is literally used for bears. They’re spraying it at us—human beings—which is, you know, putting us out of service for a while. I mean, I got hit with it plenty of times that day and it just seals your eyes shut.”

Michael Fanone, 40, a former U.S. Capitol Police officer who now works as a plainclothes Metropolitan officer, recalled suiting up and rushing to the building. He said rioters yanked clothing from him and tried to grab his gun.

“I remember guys chanting, like, ‘Kill him with his own gun.’ I was tased about a half dozen times on the back of my neck. That sucked,” he said. “I thought about killing people.”

Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee III told the broadcaster that the officers were “heroes.”

“I’m so very proud of them,” he said.