Capitol Police Officer Edwards was one of 2 witnesses to give live testimony during the first hearing from the January 6th Committee. At the end of her testimony, Chairman Thompson asked her this question:
REP THOMPSON: Can you give us one memory of that awful day that stands out, most vividly in your mind?
OFFICER EDWARDS: I can. that time when I talked about falling behind MPDs line. I remember because I had been kind of shielded away, because I was holding those stairs so I wasn't able to really see what was going on over here. When I fell behind that line and I saw, I can just remember my breath catching in my throat because when I saw was just a war scene. It was something like I had seen out of the movies. I couldn't believe my eyes.
There were officers on the ground, they were bleeding, they were throwing up, they were, they had I mean I saw friends with blood all over their faces. I was slipping in peoples blood. I was catching people, as they fell, I was -- it was carnage, it was chaos. I can't even describe what I saw.
Never in my wildest dreams did I think that, as a police officer, as a law enforcement officer, I would find myself in the middle of a battle. I'm trained to detain a couple of subjects and handle a crowd, but I'm not combat trained. And that day, it was just hours of hand to hand combat. Hours of dealing with things that were way beyond any law enforcement officer has ever trained for. And I just remember, I just remember that moment of stopping behind the line, and just seeing the absolute war zone that the west front had become.
Gut wrenching testimony. Truly one of the most powerful moments of the night.
