The number of injuries suffered by police as they attempted to fend off supporters of President Trump who seized the U.S. Capitol last week runs long. They include swollen ankles and wrists, bruised arms and legs, concussions and irritated lungs.
How those injuries occurred is varied: pushed down stairs, trampled by rioters, run over in a stampede, punched with fists.
More than 58 D.C. police officers and an unknown number of U.S. Capitol Police officers were injured in the hours-long riot and assault on Wednesday as lawmakers were formalizing the election victory for Joe Biden as president. It was a battle in which police were outnumbered. One Capitol Police officer died in circumstances that remain unclear.
“I’ve talked to officers who have done two tours in Iraq, who said this was scarier to them than their time in combat,” acting D.C. police chief Robert J. Contee III said Monday after speaking to an officer who was discharged from the hospital after being beaten and injured with a stun gun.
