A workers assistant for Speaker of the Home Nancy Pelosi feared she can be ‘tortured, raped and shot’ as she hid beneath a desk through the assault on the US Capitol final January.
Leah Han, from Washington DC, who’s a senior workers assistant at U.S. Home of Representatives, was trapped within the constructing as a mob of Trump supporters rioted, in search of to overturn his defeat within the 2020 presidential election.
After evacuating Pelosi’s workplace, Leah hid in a locked, darkish room reverse her workplace as hoards of marauding protesters roamed the corridors terrified that she and her colleagues can be ‘taken hostage’ in the event that they had been found.
Showing on BBC2 documentary 4 Hours on the Capitol which aired tonight, she broke down in tears as she recalled how she ‘thought she was going to die’ and mentioned she ‘could not textual content her mother and father’ as a result of she would not be capable of management her feelings.
Leah Han (pictured), from Washington DC, who’s a senior workers assistant at U.S. Home of Representatives, appeared on tonight’s BBC Two documentary and revealed how she feared she can be ‘tortured, raped and shot’ as she hid beneath a desk through the assault on the US Capitol final January
After evacuating Pelosi’s workplace, Leah (pictured) hid in a locked, darkish room reverse her workplace as hoards of marauding protesters roamed the corridors terrified that she and her colleagues can be ‘taken hostage’ in the event that they had been found
Leah revealed that round 2pm, when rioters had damaged into the corridors, she and her colleagues moved from their workplace to a room throughout the hallway.
‘We turned off the lights and simply settled down and as soon as the commotion received louder all of us hid below the desk to really feel safer, everybody simply held their breath and it was simply silent’, she mentioned.
As they continued to encroach on the workplace, Leah defined: ‘We knew they had been there. We knew they had been shut by and that was the scary half. I am at midnight proper now and hiding below a desk.
‘I used to be pondering, “In the event that they discover us, are they going to maintain us hostage? Are they going to torture us, am I going to get raped, am I going to get shot, have they got weapons?”
‘Then they began banging on our door, they simply did not get in. I nonetheless do not know the way they did not, perhaps they simply did not suppose it was value making an attempt to open as a result of it appears like nothing again there.
‘I believed I used to be going to die, I did not suppose I used to be going to go residence that day and I knew if I textual content my mother and father to inform them I really like them I used to be going to cry and I simply could not. I used to be not going to let myself cry. I figured if I’ll die my mother and father will know I really like them’.
In January final yr, a mob of Trump supporters rioted, in search of to overturn his defeat within the 2020 presidential election (pictured)
Round 2pm that day, protesters (pictured) broke glass home windows and into the constructing
Pelosi was evacuated from Home ground at 14.13pm to a safe off-site location as protesters unfold throughout the constructing in search of the politician whereas chanting threats.
The 90-minute documentary featured unseen footage from the assault alongside interviews with rioters and cops who had been on the coronary heart of the protests.
Officer Michael Fanone, of the Metropolitan Police Division of the District of Columbia, mentioned that January sixth began off as ‘another day for me.’
He continued: ‘It wasn’t till I began listening to the speeches that got at that rally I felt that day was going to be a foul day.
‘I may inform, right now may be an issue. I have been a police officer for practically twenty years and that day, to suppose that I and a s**t tonne of my fellow officers practically misplaced their lives, pisses me the f**okay off.’
Michael was brutally attacked through the protests after being dragged down the Capitol’s marble stairs by rioters and crushed with pipes, tear-gassed and tasered on the base of the cranium a number of instances.
The officer, who entered the scene at round 3pm, mentioned radio communications amid the assault had been ‘extra consistent with fight’ and recalled being branded a ‘traitor’ by rioters as he approached.
As Michael protected the constructing from protesters a member of the group dragged him from his fellow officers and into the mob:
He recalled: ‘I bear in mind him yelling out “Yeah I received one”. Then I knew, yeah I am f****’.
‘I bear in mind type of getting pounded from each aspect and I bear in mind folks yelling out to get his gun, kill him together with his gun, and I began getting tasered on the base of my cranium. It was excruciatingly painful.
‘I bear in mind yelling out that I had children, making an attempt to attraction to any individual with humanity and it labored and in the end I feel that led to my survival.’
The assault started at round 12pm, when members of the right-wing group Proud Boy motion began marching in direction of the Capitol forward of a speech Trump was delivering to his supporters at a rally in Washington DC.
Eddie Block, a member of the group, mentioned: ‘Everybody simply began marching on the grass in direction of the Capitol. They felt the election was stolen. They felt their vote was taken away from them they usually felt this was the one technique to get their voices heard’.
Tayler Hansen, a contract reporter who adopted the march, says the preliminary breach of the police barrier was nearly 20 minutes earlier than Trump completed his speech, including that officers had been already changing into ‘overwhelmed’.
One other member of the Proud Boys group, Bobby Pickles detailed the second the preliminary barrier was damaged, describing it as ‘sheer bedlam, no person cares, no person cares about regulation or something like that.’
He continued: ‘There was no image, no signal, it was simply everyone performing in unison and that is when all hell broke unfastened.
‘At this second there was plenty of combating between patriotic folks and Capitol police. While you actually imagine a tyrannical authorities are taking on the nation some loopy stuff goes to go down. It was us versus them’.
The 90-minute documentary featured unseen footage from the assault alongside interviews with rioters and cops who had been on the coronary heart of the protests. Pictured, scenes in January final yr
Hoards of marauding protesters (pictured) roamed the corridors leaving Leah terrified
Officer Winston Pingeon of the US Capitol police who was on the entrance line because the rioters broke down police obstacles mentioned: ‘The gang was very hostile and really shortly we had been utterly surrounded’.
Tyler defined issues started to descend additional when a member of the group picked up the police barrier and threw it at an workplace, describing the riot from that time as ‘pure anarchy’.
MPD Commander Raymey Kyle admitted he feared for the lives of his officers, whereas Robert Glover added the riot was like being in a struggle zone.
‘After I first arrived it seemed like a battle was raging, proper then I knew we had been in for an enormous battle’,’ mentioned Kyle.
‘I feel if we had bore weapons and began taking pictures there would have been an enormous lack of life, perhaps on each side.
One other member of the Proud Boys group, Bobby Pickles (pctured) detailed the second the preliminary barrier was damaged, describing it as ‘sheer bedlam, no person cares, no person cares about regulation or something like that.’
‘It felt like we had been 100-to-one. Officers had been falling off the road, they had been bleeding and injured. I used to be terrified in the event that they broke our strains they might choose off officers one after the other.’
Commander Glover added: ‘I bear in mind strolling by means of blood, it got here from one among our sergeants who misplaced a portion of his hand.
‘We’re civilian cops, we see trauma every single day we see the worst of humanity however nothing can put together you for that, that is one thing you’d see in fight’.
By 2.13pm, protestors had damaged previous police defending the west steps and battled their method into the constructing and an instantaneous recess of the Senate was referred to as.
Officer Keith Robishaw recalled how they tried to subdue protesters who had been shouting threats as they battled their method by means of the constructing.
‘Tensions had been excessive’, he defined. ‘They needed to battle their method in. They confirmed their intent for violence. They’re screaming issues like, “We’re coming for you Mike Pence, you may’t conceal from us, we’ll discover you.”‘
‘If I mentioned I wasn’t scared I might be mendacity, I used to be terrified, I did not know what to do.
‘Assembly them with violence at the moment wouldn’t be protected for me or my fellow officers, the sheer variety of them and us – there was no method we may all get bodily with them.
‘So I attempted to speak to them, “You are not right here to harm us. We’re not right here to harm you, we simply need every part to simmer down”‘.
Leah (pictured) broke down in tears as she recalled how she ‘thought she was going to die’ and mentioned she ‘could not textual content her mother and father’ as a result of she would not be capable of management her feelings
Because the mob encroached on the Senate chamber, Democrat Consultant Ruben Gallego feared he must battle off the protesters himself.
‘Folks had been hyperventilating,’ he mentioned. ‘It was simply unhealthy, they had been scared, they had been actually actually scared.’
‘I used to be a listing man in america Marine Core, I needed to cope with some very aggressive crowds once I was in Iraq, people themselves aren’t often an issue. However after they get collectively collectively and create a mob, the mob is the weapon.
‘I used to be able to battle, I noticed plenty of sh*t again in my day however I used to be not going to die on the ground on the f***ing ground of the home of consultant. I used to be not going to get killed by some insurrectionist b*****.
‘My plan was to stab any individual within the eye and throat and take away their weapon and battle to outlive.’
At 2.44pm, rioter Ashli Babbitt was shot by Capitol Police whereas making an attempt to drive entry into the Speaker’s Foyer adjoining to the Home chambers by climbing by means of a window that led to the Home ground.
Minutes later, the Governor of Virginia despatched the Virginia Nationwide Guard to assist the U.S. Capitol, with MPD Commander Kyle saying: ‘It was just about a battle your complete time.
‘We had injured officers they could not see they could not breathe. I might inform them I am sorry however it’s a must to get again within the battle we’re about to lose this. I did not need my title taking place in historical past because the man who gave up the Capitol.
Virginia state police confirmed up, full gear, that was probably the greatest sights I’ve ever seen and we didn’t lose the door. We had been capable of maintain it till the very finish.’
An hour later, at 4:17 pm, a video of Trump was uploaded to Twitter during which he instructed the rioters ‘it’s a must to go residence now’. He tweeted later within the night calling the protesters ‘nice patriots’.