Caroline Edwards

Caroline Edwards, a US Capitol Police officer assigned to the first responder unit on January 6, 2021, testified Thursday night about the attacks she ...

I was called a traitor to my country, my home and my Constitution. In actuality, I was none of those things." It's unconscionable that Officer Edwards was on the West front of the Capitol with no universal fence, no riot gear and too few officers to back her up. "Make no mistake, the breach of the U.S. Capitol was a failure of our leadership, as outlined in the Senate report earlier this year. "I can just remember my breath catching in my throat because what I saw was just a war scene. "I was an American standing face-to-face with other Americans asking myself how many time -- many, many times -- how we had gotten here. She also detailed being sprayed in the eyes and teargassed.

Driving the news: "I was slipping in people's blood," U.S. Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards, believed to be the first officer injured on Jan. 6, ...

The big picture: Tonight's televised 90-minute hearing, and sessions next week, will show that the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol "was a result of a coordinated, multi-step effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election and stop the transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden," one committee aide said. - "Jan. 6 was the culmination of an attempted coup," Thompson said. It was chaos. The big picture: The testimony from two eyewitnesses set the backdrop for the committee's argument that the insurrection "was a result of a coordinated, multi-step effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election and stop the transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden," Axios' Alayna Treene reports. - "It was carnage. - "I was surprised by the size of the group, the anger and the profanity," he testified.

Caroline Edwards was the first U.S. Capitol Police officer injured in the Jan. 6, 2021 breach of the Capitol building and testified before the House ...

Edwards is a native of Atlanta, and an alumna of the University of Georgia, where she graduated with honors. Edwards' injuries have prevented her from returning to the Capitol Police's First Responder Unit, but she hopes to return to duty later this year, according to the committee. Edwards sustained an injury during the Capitol riots that have prevented her from returning to duty

The Capitol police officer, who was injured in the insurrection, said she saw colleagues 'bleeding, on the ground, throwing up'

“That day, it was just hours of hand-to-hand combat.” “I saw friends with blood all over their faces,” she said. His mother and girlfriend attended the hearing on Thursday. After the hearing concluded, Edwards turned to his girlfriend, Sandra Garza, and said “I’m so sorry,” and hugged her, according to the Wall Street Journal. In her testimony, she recalled seeing a fellow police officer, Brian Sicknick, after he had been pepper-sprayed and how he was pale. She described standing near a barricade as members of the Proud Boys, a far-right group that played a key role in the violence, escalated their attack. “Officers on the ground.

"It was carnage, it was chaos. I can't even describe what I saw," says U.S. Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards.

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Caroline Edwards became for many the first police face to appear on a national stage to discuss the viciousness of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Five people died on that day or in the immediate aftermath, and 140 police officers were assaulted. Charges: Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and four lieutenants have been charged with seditious conspiracy, joining Oathkeepers leader Stewart Rhodes and about two dozen associates in being indicted for their participation in the Capitol attack. “And I stated the understatement of the century. She told the newspaper that she was riot-trained but was deployed without equipment, a common problem for Capitol Police officers that day. She named Joseph Biggs, a leader of the far-right group who is facing federal seditious conspiracy charges, as one person who confronted her and stirred up the crowd. Then Edwards was sprayed in the face. The video showed her glancing over at her colleague, officer Brian D. Sicknick, who had apparently been sprayed in the face with an irritant. Other officers have testified previously, but not on this stage — the first of multiple public hearings being orchestrated by the committee as it seeks to build a case that former president Donald Trump and his allies conspired to carry out a coup. Edwards joined the Capitol Police in 2017, after beginning her career in public relations. Edwards also noted that Capitol Police leaders did have warnings about the pending storm but didn’t inform the front-line officers. “It was something like I had seen out of the movies,” Edwards told the committee and a prime-time national television audience during testimony that was both gripping and gut-wrenching. There were officers on the ground they were bleeding.