Acting DC Police Chief Criticizes Army ‘Lukewarm’ Response to Jan 6 Riots

The chief spoke of the murderous toll of the assault on the United States Capitol.

Washington, DC’s top cop said the assault on the US Capitol exposed “security weaknesses in the country’s safest city” during a closed-door Congressional briefing Tuesday.

“I was stunned by the lukewarm response from the Department of the Army, which was reluctant to send the DC National Guard to Capitol Hill,” Acting Metropolitan Police Department chief Robert Contee told the credits committee. of the House in written testimony obtained by ABC News. “While I certainly understand the importance of planning and public perception – the factors cited by call staff – these issues become secondary when you watch your employees, vastly outnumbered by a crowd, being assaulted. physically.

“I was able to quickly deploy my force and give them direction while they were in the field, and I was honestly shocked that the National Guard couldn’t – or don’t – do the same,” he said. he adds.

Contee spoke of the murderous death toll of the Jan.6 attack on the Capitol, noting that five people – including Capitol Hill cop Brian Sicknick – died from the siege. He also revealed that an MPD officer, whom he identified as Jeffery Smith, subsequently committed suicide. He is one of two police officers to kill himself as a result of the attack – the other being Capitol Police Officer Howard Liebengood, according to Contee.

Of the more than 1,000 MPD officers who responded, 65 were injured in the riot, Contee also noted.

“Further damage from this traumatic day will be widely felt, but likely unrecognized,” Contee’s testimony said. “The training of the police does not anticipate or prepare for hours of hand-to-hand combat. Even brief physical fights are physically and emotionally draining.

The acting U.S. Capitol Police chief apologized to lawmakers at Tuesday’s briefing for not being better prepared for the attack.

“Let me be clear: the ministry should have been better prepared for this attack,” Acting Leader Yogananda Pittman told the House Appropriations Committee in the opening speech obtained by ABC News. “We knew there was a great potential for violence and that Congress was the target.”

“I am here to offer my sincere apologies on behalf of the Department,” she said in her remarks.

Pittman confirmed that the department’s oversight committee, the Capitol Police Council, rejected a request by then-Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund two days before the riot for troops from the National Guard.

The Washington Post previously reported that the Capitol Police request was rejected by Congressional security officials because they predicted House and Senate leaders would not want troops stationed around the Capitol.

Capitol Police asked more officers to work Jan. 6 in anticipation of the violence – including a SWAT team and civil unrest units – but “we haven’t done enough,” Pittman said.

Sund also requested permission to bring in the National Guard on Jan.6, but was not authorized by the board “for more than an hour,” Pittman told the House committee.

Pittman also called the attack on Capitol Hill “a terrorist attack by tens of thousands of insurgents determined to stop the certification of electoral college votes, the department failed to meet its own high standards as well as yours. “.

“I believe that some of the challenges the Department faced on the day of the attack could have been overcome with additional preparation,” she wrote.

Pittman also said that once the Capitol was breached, their focus turned to the safety of members and leaders.

A familiar source confirmed that the chiefs and deputy chiefs remained silent on January 6. Neither took control of the radio, the source said, and when officers were looking for leaders there were none.

Capitol Police Union chairman Gus Papathanasiou told ABC News that there are currently no votes of no-confidence underway against the acting chief and senior management of the department.

“The officers have been calling for a vote of no confidence since January 6,” Papathanasiou said. “At the moment, we haven’t cast a vote of no confidence. That doesn’t mean we can’t think about it. There is a big difference.”