WASHINGTON, D.C. — University of Georgia graduate Caroline Edwards relived the terror of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol as she recalled and watched videos of the savagery during a Jun. 9 hearing.  

Edwards was the first to publicly testify for the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. 

The Committee asserts that former President Donald Trump prompted and provoked the attack where thousands of people overran police and broke into the Capitol as Congress was preparing to certify the 2020 presidential election results that Joe Biden would be the next president.  

Following Trump’s rally held near the Capitol before the attack, rally-goers and others descended onto the Capitol.  

Edwards recalled some of them chanting derogatory terms about antifa, before one of the leaders began shouting questions toward police regarding police paychecks and pay scales during the pandemic. 

“(They) started turning the tables on us. And I’ve worked, I can conservatively say, probably hundreds of civil disturbance events. I know when I’m being turned into a villain,” she said. “That’s when I turned to my sergeant and I stated probably the understatement of the century: I said, ‘Sarge, I think we’re going to need a few more people down here.’”

Edwards was knocked unconscious after she said attackers broke through a first line of barricades and then a barricade of bike racks. Some of them wore bulletproof vests and military gear.  

“We started grappling over the bike racks. I felt the bike rack come on top of my head, and I was pushed backwards and my foot caught the stair behind me,” she recalled. “My chin hit the hit the handrail and then at that point I blacked out and the back of my head hit the concrete stairs behind me.”

Upon regaining consciousness, Edwards said adrenaline kicked in and she ran to guard the entryway to the Senate steps where more people began to approach. 

She recalled being tear-gassed and remembered several of her fellow officers who had fallen to the ground during the ambush — some with blood on their faces — and she was “slipping in people’s blood.”  

“Never in my wildest dreams did I think that as a police officer I would find myself in the middle of a battle,” said the Atlanta native, who left a career in public relations to enter law enforcement in 2017. 

Since Jan. 6, 2021, her injuries from brain damage have prevented her from returning to her role in the Capitol Police’s First Responder Unit.

Five law enfacement officers are reported to have died as a result of the attack — one who died of a stroke in his office shortly after the attack, he had been hit in the head with a fire extinguisher and pepper sprayed; four officers took their lives in the days following the attack.  

Four deaths were reported among those who were rallying at the Capitol that day; one was shot by a Capitol officer, two were reported as natural causes and one a drug overdose.

The committee has subpoenaed information from hundreds of people, including Georgia U.S. Rep Barry Loudermilk and Alabama U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks.   

Through investigations, the Committee said it discovered that Loudermilk may have information regarding a tour he led through parts of the Capitol the day before the attack. 

In the week following Jan. 6, the committee said members urged law enforcement to investigate sightings of “outside groups in the complex” on Jan. 5 that “appeared to be associated with the rally at the White House the following day.”

“In response to those allegations, Republicans on the Committee on House Administration — of which you are a Member — claimed to have reviewed security footage from the days preceding January 6th and determined that “[t]here were no tours, no large groups, no one with MAGA hats on. However, the Select Committee’s review of evidence directly contradicts that denial,” a May 19 committee letter to Loudermilk states.

Loudermilk said he found out about the letter from airport TVs traveling back to Georgia from D.C. He said the “tour” the letter references involved him having lunch in a House office building with a family visiting D.C.

“What was so awful about this family that caused the committee to make false accusations about them? Well, some were actually wearing baseball caps,” he said, claiming the committee hadn’t reached out to him before publicly releasing the letter. 

“There was nothing unusual or nefarious about this family’s visit to see their congressman,” Loudermilk said.  

He accused the Democrat-dominant committee of baseless accusations to destroy Republicans, and claims his family and staff have received threats.

Brooks was subpoenaed May 31 after the committee said he refused to voluntarily cooperate with its investigation.  

Brooks spoke at Trump’s rally just before the attack, encouraging rioters to “start taking down names and kicking a–,” the committee stated.

The committee referenced statements that Brooks has publicly described conversations in which Trump urged him to work to “rescind the election of 2020” and reinstall Trump as president.

Brooks, who is currently in a June 21 U.S. Senate runoff, has said he would not speak to the committee until after that election.  

The committee is tasked with investigating and reporting the facts, circumstances and causes related to the Jan. 6, “domestic terrorist attack upon the United States Capitol,” then issuing a final report to the House containing its findings, conclusions and recommendations for corrective measures.