DC Police appoint second officer to suicide after riot on Capitol Hill, denounce military ‘lukewarm’ response



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A second officer who responded to the U.S. Capitol riot has died by suicide, acting chief of the DC Metropolitan Police Department Robert J. Contee told Congress on Tuesday.

Contee, who testified before the House Appropriations Committee, also described a “lukewarm response” from the military, which he said was concerned about the optics of having boots on the ground and was reluctant to send the DC National Guard, although a violent mob invaded the protective measures at the Capitol.

At the height of the incident on January 6, approximately 850 members of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) were on Capitol Hill assisting the United States Capitol Police, and at the end of the day, an additional estimate of 250 MPD members were in the area to directly support the response and the aftermath, Contee said.

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He also said the ministry spent around $ 8.8 million during insurgency week.

A total of five people were killed directly as a result of the storming of the Capitol on January 6, including Capitol policeman Brian Sicknick, who died in hospital the next day from injuries sustained while he “physically engaged” with rioters. In addition, two police officers – one from the DC Metro Police, another from the United States Capitol Police – “committed suicide as a result of this battle,” Contee said.

Contee identified Jeffery Smith, an officer with the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), as the second law enforcement member to kill himself after responding to the Capitol Riot.

On January 6, 2021, Trump supporters attempt to break through a police barrier on Capitol Hill in Washington.  (AP Photo / Julio Cortez, file)

On January 6, 2021, Trump supporters attempt to break through a police barrier on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo / Julio Cortez, file)

Smith was a 12-year veteran of the force assigned to patrol District 2, an MPD spokeswoman confirmed to Fox News.

Contee also named Capitol Police Officer Howard Liebengood, 51, who died by suicide on January 9.

Capitol Police initially did not disclose the cause of death in their statement first announcing his death, but a family lawyer previously confirmed to media that Liebengood had committed suicide and had been on duty for a few more days. early during the riot at the Capitol.

“We honor the service and sacrifice of Officers Brian Sicknick, Howard Liebengood and Jeffery Smith, and offer our condolences to all the grieving families,” Contee said Tuesday.

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According to his testimony, 65 members of the MPD suffered injuries documented in injury reports, but many more “did not even bother to report” additional injuries resulting from assaults that included scratches, bruises. , eyes burnt by a mass of bears.

“People nationwide and around the world were shocked and moved by the video of MPD officer Michael Fanone being beaten by a mob of insurgents, including one waving an American flag, and of Officer Daniel Hodges at the agony as he was crushed between a door and a riot shield, ”Contee said.

“Their fellow officers at the MPD and elsewhere are proud of their bravery in the face of this vicious and unprovoked attack. This bravery was matched that day by countless other unannounced MPD officers.”

Seven hours elapsed between the urgent call for help from the Capitol police to the MPD and the resumption of work by the two chambers of Congress, a moment which “will remain indelibly engraved in the memory of every agent of the forces. order that was on the scene, as it is undoubtedly on the minds of elected officials, congressional staff and other Capitol Hill employees who were forced to seek safety behind locked doors, ”said Contee.

At 12:58 p.m. on January 6, former Capitol Hill Police Chief Steven Sund – who has since resigned – first called for the MPD’s help. A violent crowd has already exceeded protective measures on Capitol Hill in an attempted insurgency by the time MPD officers arrived on the Western Front, Contee said.

MPD platoons worked to prevent rioters from entering the building and attempted to establish a perimeter, and at 2:22 p.m. Contee, along with Capitol Police officials from the DC National Guard and the Department of the Army, gathered for a call to discuss next steps.

“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,” Contee told members of Congress.

“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. 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. “

Contee said he sought clarification from Sund if he was actually asking for National Guard help and then asked U.S. Army officials on the call if they refused to deploy the Guard for help him. Contee said, “Army personnel responded that they weren’t refusing to send them, but wanted to know the plan and didn’t like the look of the boots on the ground at Capitol Hill.”

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Meanwhile, at 2:30 p.m., the District of Columbia had requested additional officers from as far away as New Jersey and issued a city-wide emergency curfew advisory starting at 6 p.m. It took another three and a half hours for all the rioters to be removed from the Capitol.

Ninety minutes later, at 8 p.m., Congress was able to resume.

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