Capitol Riot: Injuries and trauma still plague police officers involved - The Washington Post
More than six months after Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell battled the mob that stormed the Capitol, he remains hobbled, a hand scarred, a shoulder aching, recovering from surgery to an injured foot that swelled so large it no longer fit his shoe.
The 42-year-old Capitol Police officer and Army reservist is also seeing a therapist to help with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), first diagnosed after he served in the war in Iraq.
He said bouts of anxiety returned after his battle on American soil in the Jan. 6 riot.
“I can be fine now and see or hear something and next thing I get tears and get emotional,” said Gonell, who was hurt when rioters tried to yank away his ballistic shield, threw a speaker at him, struck him in the face with a pole and sprayed him with chemical irritants.
“I tried to be strong,” he said of the months following the riot. “I tried not to show my emotion.” But once, he said, he retreated to a quiet space at his home in Virginia, away from his wife and 9-year-old son: “I completely broke down.”...
...One Capitol officer who was knocked unconscious and could “barely walk, barely talk” said she was initially told she would be out of work for a week. She was later diagnosed with a concussion and has not yet returned to the job.
A D.C. officer who was hit on the back of the head with a pole and had his head wrenched back when rioters tried to tear off his helmet also has been out with a concussion, and sees a neurologist and two therapists. He said his mind shifts between “anger, confusion, despair,” and between wanting to return to the job and wanting to quit.
Jan. 6 certainly was no "tour group". As the trials of the insurrectionists begin to take place, it's important to not lose sight of exactly what happened that day, how violent it was, and what the insurrectionists' intent was.