US Capitol Riots: Violence could be repeated again warns officer responsible for security on January 6
The police officer responsible for security at the United States Capitol during the protests in January 2021 has warned that the violence could be repeated.
Speaking to Sky News on the second anniversary of a day which shocked the nation, Chief Steven Sund said: “My concern is the failures, the security failures in themselves, that occurred on January 6th could result in another attack, whether it’s domestic, whether it’s foreign.
“We missed all the signals that should have told us this was coming. The security structure failed miserably.”
Mr Sund resigned in the hours after the protests. Five of his officers died and 140 were seriously injured in the violence.
As head of the police force with jurisdiction over Capitol Hill, he was criticised for his failings.
Two years on, he says intelligence failures, from within his department and beyond it, coupled with his own rejected requests for back-up, made his job impossible.
“Intelligence was a disaster. We now know that significant intelligence existed, saying people were coordinating an attack on the Capitol, that didn’t get into the right hands. I found out about that after January 6th.”
“There has to be lessons learned from January 6th that apply to a future event,” he said.
Mr Sund insisted he did not want to be drawn on the political divisions exposed by the events of January 6th but did offer one pointed remark.
“We’re a very divided country right now and I blame politicians on both sides. The rhetoric, the lack of being able to just work with your fellow politician just sets a standard that Americans are just mimicking.
“They need to grow up and act like adults.”
‘My most visceral memory was…I look up and see this crowd of hundreds coming’
Reflecting on the events of that January afternoon, Mr Sund said: ‘It was a tough, tough, dark day. My most visceral memory was 12:53 p.m. when I was in the command centre… and somebody yells ‘there’s a large crowd approaching our West front’. And I look up and I see this crowd of hundreds coming across Garfield Circle and then another crowd coming across Peace Circle, approaching our line of officers right there at the walkways.”
He continued: “What struck me was just how quickly those crowds turned violent with my officers on those barricades, lashing out at them, pulling at the barricades, pulling the officers down and starting to punch at the officers. I’ve never seen that type of response in my life. It was extremely violent and I felt like I had a shock go through my body that sometimes I still feel today.”
Supporters of President Donald Trump are confronted by Capitol Police officers outside the Senate Chamber at the Capitol
Describing his request for back-up, he says: “While we’re under attack, I go and ask for National Guard and faced a 71 minute delay while the Capitol Police board, the two Sergeants at Arms, discussed making a decision….”
“Then I have to wait three-and-a-half hours for the National Guard to arrive because the Pentagon, just like the Sergeant at Arms, doesn’t like the look of National Guard troops at the Capitol…..” he says.
“So they delay and delay and delay. We had 150 National Guard troops deployed on the streets of Washington DC, with all the riot gear, and they wouldn’t move them the half mile to two miles to tell me.”
The former police chief expands on his criticism, specifically of the Department of Defense, in his book ‘Courage Under Fire”.
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‘I think about it every day’
Responding to the criticism, Pentagon officials refer to a published timeline detailing military planning on the day.
At the White House, the anniversary of the day was marked with a small ceremony.
President Biden awarded Presidential Citizens Medals to individuals who defended the Capitol and others who the White House credits for ‘courage and selflessness during a moment of peril for our nation’. They included police officers, election workers, as well as officials at the state and local level.
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“I miss being a police officer…” Mr Sund said, sitting on the steps outside the Capitol.
“I miss being down here. I love the men and women of the Capitol Police. I think about it… I think about it every day. I don’t know if I’ll ever put on a badge and uniform again, but I do miss it. And it did… it has had a big impact on me, but it had a big impact on every single officer that was down here that day.”
Politicians have sent messages of support to Joe Biden, who has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
The 82-year-old, who is the oldest person to ever serve as US president, was described as a “fighter” with people wishing him a “fast and full recovery”.
US President Donald Trump said he was “saddened” by the news, adding: “We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.”
Former US president Barack Obama said: “Michelle and I are thinking of the entire Biden family.
“Nobody has done more to find breakthrough treatments for cancer in all its forms than Joe, and I am certain he will fight this challenge with his trademark resolve and grace. We pray for a fast and full recovery.”
Read more: Biden diagnosed with ‘aggressive’ form of prostate cancer
Barack Obama (right) with Joe Biden at a campaign event in 2022. File pic: Reuters
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he was “very sorry to hear President Biden has prostate cancer”.
“All the very best to Joe, his wife Jill and their family, and wishing the President swift and successful treatment,” he added.
After a poor debate performance against Mr Trump and amid escalating concerns for his health, Mr Biden withdrew from the 2024 election and endorsed his vice president Kamala Harris.
Ms Harris wrote on X: “We are keeping him, Dr. Biden, and their entire family in our hearts and prayers during this time.
“Joe is a fighter – and I know he will face this challenge with the same strength, resilience, and optimism that have always defined his life and leadership. We are hopeful for a full and speedy recovery.”
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Former US president Bill Clinton wrote on social media: “My friend Joe Biden’s always been a fighter. Hillary and I are rooting for him and are keeping him, Jill, and the entire family in our thoughts.”
Hillary Clinton, who unsuccessfully ran for president in 2016, said she was “thinking of the Bidens as they take on cancer, a disease they’ve done so much to try to spare other families from”.
Speaker of the US House Of Representatives Mike Johnson said it was “sad news” and his family “will be joining the countless others who are praying” for Mr Biden.
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Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi described Mr Biden as a “great American patriot” and said she was “praying for him to have strength and a swift recovery”.
Mr Trump’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, wrote on social media he and his wife were “united in prayer for the Biden Family during this difficult time”.
In 1990s and early 2000s New York, Sean “Diddy” Combs was the person to be seen with.Â
Now on trial in Manhattan, his hair grey, his beard grown, it’s hard to imagine that he was “the Pied Piper… of the most elite level of partying of that time” – but that’s how Amy DuBois Barnett describes him.
She was the first Black-American woman to run a major mainstream magazine in the US, and based in Manhattan at a time when hip hop was at its zenith.
“Urban culture really ran the city,” she says. “That’s where so much of the money was… you had all the finance bros trying to get into Puffy (Combs) parties, all the fashion executives trying to get into Puffy parties.”
And while he was welcomed by the highest echelons of the arts and entertainment world, she says: “He was never known for being a calm kind of individual.”
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs in New York in July 2004. Pic: AP
Combs was “very dismissive” with her, and she admits: “Puff never particularly liked me that much.”
But DuBois Barnett would often get invited to his parties because she was able to feature his up-and-coming artists in her magazines.
From editor-in-chief of Ebony magazine, she’d go on to become the editor-in-chief of Honey and Teen People magazines, and then deputy editor of Harper’s Bazaar.
She says the man she met at those parties “lacked warmth” and seemed “complicated”.
Amy DuBois Barnett
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“When he walked in the room, all of the energy changed. Puffy had his trusted individuals around him… immediately the area around him would become kind of crowded with everybody vying for his attention,” she says.
“I think that was also partially why he didn’t particularly like me because I wasn’t really vying for his attention.
“He really reserved that attention for the people that he was either attracted to… or the people that he thought were important enough to his business success.”
Amy DuBois Barnett (right) with publisher Desiree Rogers at an event for Ebony magazine
She says it was common knowledge that he wasn’t someone to cross due to “rumours… of what he could do”.
“There were a lot of people within journalism, within media, within other industries that were afraid of his influence and also afraid of his temper,” she adds.
“When things at parties would not go his way or somebody didn’t bring him something quickly enough, or… the conversation wasn’t going his way… he would just kind of snap and he was just not afraid to yell at whoever was there.
“There was not a lot of boundaries in his communication, let’s just put it that way.”
Combs on the red carpet at the height of his success
But she says it was a time when a tremendous amount of misogyny was running throughout music, things that in today’s culture would certainly give pause for thought.
“So many things happened to me, everything from getting groped at parties to getting locked in a limousine with music executives and having him refuse to let me out until I did whatever he thought I was going to do, which I didn’t.”
She insists: “We didn’t have the vocabulary to understand the degree to which it was problematic… it was a thread that ran throughout the culture.”
Getting off a private jet during his heyday
Star-studded parties were the ultimate invite
At the time, a ticket to one of Combs’s star-studded “white parties” was the ultimate invite.
She admits: “It was like nothing you’ve ever seen before… the dress code was very strict.
“No beige, no ecru, absolutely white, you would literally be turned away if your outfit was wrong. Puffy did not sort of tolerate people in his parties that didn’t look ‘grown and sexy’ as it were.”
She says people would mingle by the poolside listening to the best DJs in the world, while topless models posed dressed as mermaids and waiters handed out weed brownies from silver platters.
“It was every boldface name you could possibly imagine, just this gorgeous crowd.”
At an event with model Naomi Campbell
Behind the glamour, prosecutors now allege there was a man capable of sexual abuse and violence, and a serious abuse of power. Criminal charges which he’s already pleaded not guilty to and strenuously denies.
Without question, Combs had the golden touch. Expanding his music career into business enterprises that in 2022 reportedly took his net worth to around £1bn. For decades his success story was celebrated.
“I think that in the black community, there is a feeling that if a black man is successful you don’t want to bring him down because there are not that many… these are cultural forces that are rooted in the systemic racism that’s present in the United States… but I think that these were part of what potentially protected Puffy against people speaking out.”
Couple became ‘isolated and very unhappy’
While Combs had amassed a small fortune over the course of two decades which she encountered him, the former magazine editor says his behaviour had markedly changed from the first party she went to, to her last.
“The last was a post-Grammys party, in 2017 or 2018, and just the vibe was very different. He was really kind of isolated in a corner with Cassie, you know, looking very unhappy.”
Diddy and Cassie together on the red carpet
For around 10 years, Combs had a relationship with the singer Cassie Ventura which ended in 2018.
Once over she filed a lawsuit that both parties eventually settled alleging she was trafficked, raped, drugged and beaten by the rapper on many occasions – which he denied. Last week she made similar claims in court.
A court sketch of Cassie giving evidence against Combs in court this week. Pic: Reuters
A court sketch of Combs listening to evidence from his former partner Cassie. Pic: Reuters
“Cassie looked very glassy-eyed and there was a sadness about her energy. Whatever was happening between the two of them, I mean, it didn’t feel positive,” says DuBois Barnett.
“They were sort of holed up in the corner for almost the entire night… it did feel very different from the kind of jubilant of energy that he projected in his earlier incarnations.”
For Combs, his freedom depends on how these next few weeks go. His representatives claim he is the victim of “a reckless media circus”, saying he categorically denies he sexually abused anyone and wants to prove his innocence.
In particular, they say, he looks forward to establishing the “truth… based on evidence, not speculation”.
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