Protesters who were part of an unprecedented, four-hour siege of the U.S. Capitol Wednesday told the Washington Examiner they planned a peaceful occupation of the building, but some people in their group turned violent.
“It just got crazy, that’s all I can say,” a protester from Michigan told the Washington Examiner as he walked away from the Capitol hauling a Trump flag.
Hundreds of protesters who were among a throng that marched to the Capitol broke through barricades and past the police, in some cases forcing their way into the building, which they believed they had the right to access. The two congressional chambers were evacuated, and lawmakers were taken to secure locations.
Thousands of Trump supporters gathered in Washington, D.C., Wednesday to protest the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential victory by Congress. They believe President Trump’s message that Biden won the election fraudulently and went to, and inside, the Capitol to register their objection.
“I thought we would be able to peacefully enter,” a protester who traveled from Texas told the Washington Examiner. “I didn’t know we’d be prevented from entering.”
The protester from Texas said the throng at first acted peacefully, but disorder escalated when Capitol Police moved to prevent them from mounting the East Front stairs and entering through the center door. He climbed to the top with the rest of the protesters, where he and others clashed with police.
“From moment one, there was resistance from the police officers to allow us to access a public building,” the protester said. Some protesters, he said, “got out of control, they got straight out of control.”
A man named Jeff from Granite City, Illinois, described the clash and said police were shoving protesters “so much that they pushed a guy through a shutter, which pushed him into the building.”
The man added, “Then, a woman got shot.”
Police have not disclosed the identity of the woman, who was hit in the neck and was carried from the building in a stretcher. News reports confirm that she later died.
While the Capitol siege was described by many as a coup, the dozen protesters interviewed by the Washington Examiner denied it and said their demonstration was intended to be akin to demonstrations in which activists occupy public buildings.
“If they are sitting there as a peaceful protest, it’s basically a sit-in,” a protester named Nick, from St. Louis, Missouri, said. “Eventually, they are going to run them out of there.”
One small group of men said they walked into the Capitol without resistance through the House side door and were allowed to enter by the police but told to stay away from certain areas. “They were not blocking people from coming into the building,” Nick from St. Louis said.
Nick and his group sat on benches in the Rotunda for about 15 minutes “until a cop comes up with an AR-15 strapped to him and says, ‘You guys got to get up. You can’t sit there.’” The officer did not make them leave the building but rather told them to remain in the center of the Rotunda.
Jeff from Illinois told the Washington Examiner he blamed the violence “on the young kids” and said the vast majority of the protesters were peaceful, even though they entered the Capitol against the wishes of the police.
Some of the protesters “were breaking windows and kicking doors,” Jeff said, adding that he and a friend blocked a protester from breaking into one room outside the Senate.
Protesters described an escalating situation with the police. “The police presence just kept picking up,” Jeff from Granite City said. “I think they were waiting to see what reaction they were going to get, to figure out how they were going to execute their action.”
Among the thousands of protesters were many who never went near the Capitol and knew nothing of the chaos. “I don’t think it was super violent,” Viola Miller, who traveled from Manistee, Michigan, told the Washington Examiner. “People just want their voices heard. They are tired of promises not being kept, and they want answers.”
