WASHINGTON, D.C. — A mob of people forced their way on to the grounds of the U.S. Capitol building in D.C. and ultimately into the building last Wednesday. Five died amid the chaos, including one member of the Capitol police. Those on the ground said they were fighting for their freedom.
All of the people we spoke with did not give their names.
"We're not terrorists, we are patriots," one man yelled into a megaphone.
"We were up there right below the police up there and you can see them trying to come up the door that way. It's just a tragedy," another person said.
"We were in there for about an hour and a half. When they started tear-gassing us. It was just like, you know, we need to do something. We're tired of this, we're tired of being pushed down, suppressed," said another who claimed he was in the Capitol building.
"You're defending communism and socialism," one man shouted at law enforcement.
As afternoon turned to night, tension continued to build and law enforcement tried to build a force to take back the Capitol.
"This is ridiculous. This is just the start. This is just the start of it," one of the men said.
By that time, law enforcement had successfully pushed the group out of the building and off the Capitol grounds.
One man shouted at the crowd, "Now they pepper spray you, you're women and children. This is an act of war."
Another with a megaphone had a message for law enforcement, "God sends judgment, judgments complete. It's over."
Capitol police and other law enforcement agencies pushed back press and protesters alike.
Protesters continued to shout at each other to hold the line as they were pushed further away from Capitol grounds.
"There's a six o'clock curfew in effect until six o'clock tomorrow (morning), so that should be interesting to see. Basically what happened was they got upset we stormed the Capitol and we got up there and they weren't happy about it," one man in the crowd explained to us.
"There's power in numbers. We're just trying to get everybody grouped up and show the police what they're doing to us, we can do to them too," one woman said.
"We're not even going to do the taxes. We're not playing any of their crap. We know how to barter, we can survive. We're from a town of 4,000 people. Little towns like that are beginning to move. We move together. We don't care what all these damn city people do. In our towns, not going to happen," said another woman nearby.
By 8 p.m., most of the crowd had dispersed or was arrested.
