By Steve Neavling
The Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol is “likely the largest single day mass assault of law enforcement officers in our nation’s history,” said Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.
In a nearly hourlong news conference commemorating the third anniversary of the riot, Graves said more police officers were likely injured than have been officially reported, CNN reports.
“One hundred and forty officers guarding the Capitol that day reported physical injury, but we know from talking to the hundreds of officers guarding the Capitol that day that this 140 number undercounts the number of officers who were physically injured, let alone those who have suffered trauma as a result of the day’s events,” Graves said.
Graves sought to highlight the violence that occurred that day and focused much of his attention on the extremists groups, the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys.
Graves said “scores” of weapons were wielded in the attack, including guns, tasers, baseball bats, flag poles, knives and other edged weapons, including a sword.
“We will never know all the weapons that were on Capitol grounds that day, because very few in the mob were actually arrested on January 6,” Graves noted, partly, he said, because “there was not enough law enforcement to defend the Capital and the people in it, let alone to arrest the thousands of people who illegally entered Capitol grounds.”
