Credit: Pooled image
It has been more than a year since U.S. Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards was violently attacked. Still suffering from her injuries, she testified Thursday sharing her experience.
“Those images, the smells, the yelling – you know, the chaos. That day was a war zone,” Edwards told the January 6th Select Committee, which has Democratic and Republican members of Congress.
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The testimony was carried on most broadcast, cable news networks, and streaming news platforms Thursday night.
Edwards suffered a brain injury and concussion during the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. She was among the first police officers badly hurt during the insurrection.
Federal authorities have charged and indicted Ryan Stephen Samsel, 38, of Bristol Borough, with assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers; engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds; carrying out an act of physical violence in the Capitol grounds; and obstruction of an official proceeding, according to court records.
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Authorities alleged Samsel and others led to Edwards’ injuries during the attack on Congress and failed effort to install President Donald Trump for a second term after he lost the 2020 election.
After Edwards was knocked to the ground and she struck her head on outdoor stairs and lost consciousness, Samsel picked her up and reportedly said: “We don’t have to hurt you. Why are you standing in our way?”
Credit: FBI
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Edwards was rescued by fellow officers and was reported to be in a semi-conscious state following the assault. She passed out due to her injuries later and was taken to a hospital where she was found to have have suffered a concussion, according to the FBI.
Video released by the January 6th Select Committee showed the attack and Edwards slamming into the steps.
An excited Samsel is seen in clips played by the investigating committee.
Credit: January 6th Select Committee
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Joseph Biggs, the Florida leader of the extremist group Proud Boys, is seen in the footage. He has been charged with seditious conspiracy for his role in the insurrection, which included him calling for a “revolution” and overtaking the Capitol.
Edwards testified Samsel and Biggs conferred before she was attacked.
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Despite being badly hurt, Edwards came to and kept defending the Capitol building for some time. She said adrenaline kicked in.
The injured officer said she helped treat injured officers and then got back into the fight. She was hurt again as she fought next to Officer Brian Sicknick, who died of two strokes the day after the attack.
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“All of a sudden, I see movement to the left of me, and I turned and it was Officer Sicknick with his head in his hands. And he was ghostly pale, which, I figured at the point point, he had been sprayed. And I was concerned. My cop alarm bells went off. Because if you get sprayed with pepper spray, you’re going to turn red. He turned just about as pale as this sheet of paper,” she said. “So I looked to see what had hit him, what had happened, and that’s when I got hit as well.”
Edwards said she saw officers throwing up, falling, and bleeding.
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“It was carnage, it was chaos,” she said. “I can’t even describe what I saw.”
In addition to breaking the police line and attacking the officer, Samsel has been accused of confronting other officers and attempting to steal gear from a uniformed U.S. Capitol police officer, the FBI said.
Samsel has a history of violence, largely against women, over his adult life. In one case, he attacked his pregnant girlfriend, smashed hot pizza in her face, beat her, and held her head under water, according to court papers.
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Samsel has been in federal custody since his local arrest in 2021 by federal authorities. He has bounced between jails, tried to return to custody in Pennsylvania, and reportedly was badly attacked in one correctional facility.
According to court records, Samsel is awaiting trial in his case.
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Raechel Genco, 39, of Bristol Township’s Levittown section, is charged with going to Washington D.C. with Samsel and breaching Capitol grounds.
Genco is awaiting trial.
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