Last week we featured an horrific video from the U.S. Capitol insurrection in which an officer was dragged down the stairs and beaten by the mob. Now that officer is speaking out, and his story is chilling.
Officer Michael Fanone spoke to CNN about what he was thinking while it happened: “I was just, you know, trying to fight as best I could. I remember guys were stripping me of my gear, these riders pulling my badge off my chest. They ripped my radio off my vest, started pulling ammunition magazines from their holder on my belt.”
:And then some guy started getting ahold of my gun,” Fanone added, “and they were screaming out ‘Kill him with his own gun!’ At that point, you know, it was just like self-preservation. How do I survive this situation?”
“And I thought about you know, using deadly force,” Fanone continued. “I thought about shooting people, and then I just came to the conclusion that if I was to do that, I might get a few but I’m not going to take everybody, and they’ll probably take my gun away from me, and that would definitely give them the justification that they were looking for to kill me, if they already didn’t have made that up in their minds.”
“So the other option I thought of was you know, try to appeal to somebody’s humanity,” said Fanone. “And I just remember yelling out that I have kids, and it seemed to work. Some people in the crowd started to encircle me and try to offer me some level of protection. And that provided me with enough time for other officers, specifically my partner Jimmy Albright, enough time to get to me and get me the hell out of there. And back into the west front of the Capitol.”
Fanone had one final powerful thought about those whom he was surrounded by: “A lot of people have asked me my thoughts on the individuals in the crowd that helped me or tried to offer some assistance, and I think kind of the conclusion I’ve come to is like, you know, ‘Thank you … but fuck you for being there.'”
Watch Fanone’s interview:
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