"These people were true believers in the worst way": Officer crushed in the door at the Capitol
D.C. Police Officer David Hodges, who was crushed in a tunnel door inside the Capitol, made the following remarks to the press on January 14, 2021:
"When we were marching through the crowd, they were calling us traitors, telling us to remember our oaths. Stuff like that. Eventually they attacked us on our way up, so our platoon got split up. Fists, trying to steal our equipment, pushing, hitting, kicking, that kind of thing. Also, someone on an upper level from where I was through down something huge and metal, and hit me on the head, and some other officers. Thankfully, I had my helmet on, so it did not disable me. However it might have resulted in a concussion. That was one of three times that day where I thought, this might be it, this might be the end for me."
"I put on my mask, and I got under the tunnel, where they were throwing CS gas at us. . . But since I had my mask on, and the other officers who didn't retreated, I pushed forward to the defense, and we held the line there in that doorway. I guess I got pinned through the small back-and-forth we had, fighting for every inch. My arm was pinned at that point. I wasn't able to defend myself. I think you see someone in the video who rips my mask off, my gas mask. He was also able to rip away my baton. He beat me with it. At that point, I was sucking in OC and CS gas. So I was pretty disabled at that point. . . . One of my assailants was able to get his thumb in my right eye and started gouging it, so I thought I might have been disfigured at that point. Thankfully, I was able to get him off without any permanent damage being done."
"I had people shouting at me, 'Are you my brother, are you my brother?' I also served in the National Guard, and I had veterans, or alleged veterans, telling me they fought for this country, and 'we wouldn't hurt you.' I had conspiracy theorists and just everyone you could think of yelling at me, saying, 'Why are you doing this? You are a traitor!' You know, we're not the traitors. We're the ones that saved Congress that day, and we'll do it as many times as necessary."
"Their zealotry was unreal. Some of them definitely thought they would just walk up and say, 'We're here to arrest Congress,' and then the police would say, 'All right. Let's go!' and we'd all walk in, hands in hands, and just do whatever they wanted."
"I am extremely proud of all the officers who were out there that day. You know, not all the officers were as fortunate as I was in terms of injuries. My sergeant, Sgt. Peak, he got his finger broken right off the joint when we got to the defense. He had a bone sticking out of his finger, but he slapped a napkin on there and some duct tape, and went right back to work for four hours."
Officer Hodges continued:
"There was a guy who was ripping my mask off. He was able to rip away my baton and beat me with it. He was practically foaming at the mouth. These people were true believers in the worst way."