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Officers who defended US Capitol on Jan 6 testify before Congress

Four police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 testified before Congress, sharing their first-hand account of what happened.

WASHINGTON — D.C. Metropolitan Police Department Officer Mike Fanone and several other officers testified in front of the new select committee Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. 

Fanone said he had zero hesitation about doing it, but both he and Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn said they're looking for more support from police unions to condemn politicians who minimize the insurrection.

RELATED: Police testimony will lead off panel's first Jan. 6 hearing

"We just want more support. This isn't easy," Dunn told WUSA9. "People that have a platform -- the union president, the national union president, the local DC chairmen, the Capitol Police chairman -- we just want statements saying they support us and that the officers' actions were justified." 

Both officers met with the D.C. chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police.

"I felt that we received some assurances that denouncements of statements would be made at the national level, as well as the local level, of those who would seek to mischaracterize the events of January 6," Fanone said.

The union will be discussing the matter with its national leadership in the coming days.

RELATED: More than half of Republicans think 'left-wing protestors' caused Capitol riot, poll shows

Fanone has become a symbol of the heroic, and at times heartbreaking, fight police officers waged to defend the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

According to Fanone’s bodycam video obtained by WUSA9, it was 3:16 p.m. when the MPD veteran of nearly two decades stood shoulder to shoulder alongside fellow officers trying to hold the line against a bloodthirsty mob attempting to overrun police in the West Terrance Lower tunnel to the U.S. Capitol. 

According to court documents in criminal cases against five different men charged in his assault, Fanone was pulled into the crowd then beaten, kicked, stripped of his badge and radio and Tased numerous times. 

Prosecutors say Fanone suffered a concussion and heart attack before he was handed back to his fellow officers. 

“I can see that day like I'm living it as we speak,” Fanone told WUSA9 last month, adding the memories do not haunt him like they once did. “Because it's just like, that's a part of who I am now. I'm proud of what I did. And I don't think I would have had it any other way.”  

RELATED: DC Police officer Mike Fanone says savage attack during Capitol Riot is still impacting his life, mental health

RELATED: Pelosi names Republican Liz Cheney to panel investigating Jan. 6 riot

Members of the special panel commissioned to investigate January 6 said they hope hearing from officers will "set the tone" for the investigation.

Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson (D- Miss.) told the Associated Press, "We need to hear how they felt, we need to hear what people who broke into the Capitol said to them.”

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