DC Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) placed the blame for the storming of the Capitol Building on President Donal Trump, and said he should be held able.
Four people died and more than 50 people have been arrested in the wake of the attack on the seat of U.S. Government.
“His constant and divisive rhetoric led to the consequences which Saturday,” Bowser said at a press conference late Wednesday, “and sadly it led to a loss of life that will forever stain whatever what should’ve been in could’ve been a peaceful transfer of power.”
A woman who was shot in the chest while tresing inside the Capitol Building died of her injuries, police said. Officials did not identify her, pending notification of kin, but a name has been reported.
Describing the shooting, Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Chief Robert Contee said that after the Capitol was breeched, four plainclothes officers confronted the tresers in the building. One Capitol police officer ‘discharged’ his gun, Contee said, striking a woman. She was transferred to local hospital where she was pronounced dead.
MPD will conduct an internal investigation, Contee said. MPD conducts investigations of officer shootings for all District law enforcement, he added.
MPD was called to assist at 1 p.m.
At least three other people died near the US Capitol grounds Wednesday, Contee said. The cause was believed to be medical emergencies sustained on or near the Capitol grounds. Contee said he could not confirm the cause of death until the cases had been revised by the Chief Medical Examiner. “We believe there was some sort of medical emergency for all of them, but that is preliminary,” he said
14 MPD officers were injured during the uprising, Contee said.
Contee said that MPD had arrested more than 52 people as of 10:30 p.m.
47 were arrested for curfew violations, four for carrying a gun without a license, one for refusal to arrest. 26 arrests were made on the Capitol grounds.
Officers have also found several incendiary devices. Two pipe bombs have been recovered: one from the Democractic National Committee (DNC) and another from Republican National Committee (RNC) headquarters. A cooler containing a long gun and Molotov cocktails was found in a vehicle on the grounds of the United States Capitol.
Arrests are ongoing, the chief added.
Bowser said that MPD would be issuing a ‘be on the lookout’, or BOLO, for some of the individuals who breeched the Capitol. “Some of them we think very much have to be held able for some of the carnage,” she said.
Asked about the difference in federal response at the Capitol Wednesday versus at Lafayette Square in June 2020, Bowser acknowledged a contrast.
“We saw different vehicles used, we saw different posture used in some cases,” Bowser said. “We did not see, for example, deployment of those military personnel on the Capitol grounds.”
Contee reassured community that MPD was still responding to police calls for service.
Congress reconvened at around 8 p.m. to continue certification of the Electoral College vote. That was ongoing as of 11 p.m. UPDATE: After challenges to the electoral certificates of Arizona and Pennsylvania failed, Congress certified Joe Biden’s win in the Presidential election in the early morning hours of Thursday, Jan. 7.
