New Bodycam Footage Boosts Interest in Release of 14,000 Hours of Jan. 6 Video

A protester helps former sheriff's deputy Ronald McAbee after he tried performing CPR on an unconscious Rosanne Boyland at the U.S. Capitol. New bodycam footage provides a new angle to the efforts to save Boyland, 34, who died on Jan. 6, 2021. Metropolitan Police Department/Screenshot via The Epoch Times

Dramatic bodycam footage showing protesters doing CPR on the lifeless body of Jan. 6 protester Rosanne Boyland has increased interest in the U.S. House authorizing the release of more than 14,000 hours of security video footage still being kept from the public two years after the 2021 incident.

A video posted on Twitter by columnist Julie Kelly of American Greatness shows a new angle of the attempted resuscitation of Boyland—34, of Kennesaw, Georgia—who died on Jan. 6, 2021.

It was part of more than two hours of video Kelly obtained from the bodycam of a D.C. Metropolitan Police Department officer who was in the Lower West Terrace tunnel at the Capitol.

Discovery of the video boosted the already growing interest in having the U.S. House under GOP control release the 14,000 to 16,000 hours of Jan. 6 security video and other video evidence.

Victoria White is jostled and spun around by police in the Lower West Terrace tunnel at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Metropolitan Police Department/Screenshot via The Epoch Times

“Momentum is without question building for this stuff to be released,” said defense attorney Joseph McBride, who secured the release of three hours of CCTV video from the Lower West Terrace tunnel in December 2021. “It has been building for some time.

“When you look at the members of the House Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight Committee, the quality, and depth of people that were put on those committees,” McBride said, “their priority is going to be to release that video, to make sure the public sees that video so there’s a full accounting for what happened on Jan. 6.”

The new bodycam video shows a group of protesters carrying the prone Boyland and setting her directly in front of a line of police officers as another protester performs CPR.

“Get a medic!” shouted former sheriff’s deputy Ronald Colton McAbee, pointing to the back of the tunnel.

The video repeats the words of the protesters heard on other bodycam footage obtained in 2022.

“I need compressions!” one rescuer shouted.

“She’s [expletive] dead!”

“That’s on you, mother[expletives]!”

“Turn your [expletive] badge in.”

“Shame on you!”

Begging For Help

Officers grabbed Boyland by the clothing and dragged her through the tunnel and into the Capitol. Police outside the building stood by and did not render aid despite protesters begging for help dozens of times.

Inside the Capitol, a team of SWAT officers and D.C. Fire and EMS personnel rendered life-saving aid for 50 minutes—including the use of an automated external defibrillator (AED)—but efforts ultimately failed.

The collapse of Boyland and the police’s failure to help her enraged the massive crowd on the Lower West Terrace. Fighting between protesters and police intensified for more than an hour before the crowd was driven off the terrace by a fusillade of police munitions.

Bret Boyland, Rosanne’s father, said the family still hopes for an investigation of their daughter’s death and police failure to render aid.

The new video “just makes that one question stand out even more: why they ignored the other protesters’ pleas for help,” Boyland told The Epoch Times in an email. “They just stood there and watched until they finally grabbed her by the ankles and dragged her into the tunnel.”

Deadly Human Pileup

Sarah McAbee, Ronald Colton McAbee’s wife, said she is glad more of the truth is coming out.

“Everything that Colt has said from the exact time this happened to today is true,” McAbee told The Epoch Times in an email.

“Now the evidence is coming out to support his story. I am glad the truth is starting to come to light. They have tried to narrate the story of Jan. 6 to make people like Colt out to be monsters, when in reality they were the ones being heroes.

“Someone said it best, the only police officer to help Rosanne in the West Terrace Tunnel that day is officer Ronald Colton McAbee,” she said. “All we can do is continue to pray that the 14,000 hours of evidence will be released to show the public the true events of Jan. 6.”

Boyland collapsed at the mouth of the tunnel after police released a chemical irritant or gas that set off a stampede. Dozens of protesters tumbled down the stairs, creating a deadly human pileup.

Once Boyland was freed from under the pile, a D.C. Metro officer inexplicably began striking her unconscious body with a walking stick. Police later deemed that use of force as “objectively reasonable.”

A police officer pushes protester Derrick Vargo off a landing at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. U.S. Capitol Police/Screenshot via The Epoch Times

Other footage recently obtained by The Epoch Times provides three other examples of the value of video in telling the complete story of Jan. 6.

Security-camera video from U.S. Capitol Police shows a new angle of protester Derrick Vargo being shoved off a landing on the west side of the Capitol by a USCP officer wearing a motorcycle helmet.

Vargo had climbed up the stone railing with balusters in an effort to hang his Donald Trump flag from the side of the staircase. He ducked the baton swings from one police officer, but when he stood up, the motorcycle officer’s push sent him flailing to the ground below.

Vargo blacked out when he hit the ground. He sustained serious ankle injuries that required surgical repair.

Bodycam footage from the Lower West Terrace tunnel provides a brief additional glimpse into the abuse suffered by protester Victoria White, who was featured in the July 2022 Epoch Times film “The Real Story of Jan. 6.”

Bloodied, Distraught, Dazed

The video shows a bloodied, distraught, and dazed White being grabbed, shoved, and spun around by police officers. Her jeans at the time were pulled down part way.

White was beaten in the head and face nearly 40 times, most of the blows delivered by Metropolitan Police Department Commander Jason Bagshaw. He was identified by federal prosecutors as the officer in a white uniform shirt who struck White in the tunnel.

White said she is taking a wait-and-see attitude about the release of thousands of hours of Jan. 6 video.

“I pray it all is released, but talk is all it is right now,” White told The Epoch Times in a statement. “I'll believe it when I see it.”

Another bodycam video from near the mouth of the tunnel shows back-and-forth fighting between a rioter and a D.C. Metro officer. The protester lunged at the officer, who later repeatedly punched the man in the head before a bystander intervened.