A member of the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 and was later pardoned by Donald Trump, told a retired Capitol police officer that rioters should have injured him more than they did that day.
On Saturday, former Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, reacted to the news of the military honoring Ashli Babbitt. Babbitt was shot by a Capitol Police officer while she was attempting to climb through a broken window inside the Capitol leading to the Speaker’s Lobby on the day of the riot.
“She was a traitor then, is a traitor now and she will always be in the future,” Gonell wrote.
Ryan Nichols, a rioter who was pardoned by Trump, responded to Gonell writing, “So are you. We should have went harder on you that day.”
About 140 officers were injured on Jan. 6, including Officer Brian Sicknick, who died the following day. Four officers who responded to the Capitol that day have since died by suicide.
Gonell was injured in his hands, his left shoulder, his left calf and his right foot while defending the Capitol against the pro-Trump mob. The injuries ultimately forced him to retire from the Capitol police force in 2022.
Of the nearly 1600 defendants who were charged for their role in the Capitol insurrection, 608 were charged with the felony of assaulting, resisting or interfering with law enforcement. 174 out of the 608 were charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or otherwise causing serious injury to an officer.
Nichols confessed on video to attacking law enforcement and pleaded guilty to two felonies, including assaulting law enforcement officers. He also said that the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol would lynch any elected officials who voted to certify Joe Biden’s presidential victory.
He was sentenced to 63 months in prison and 36 months of supervised release. Nichols sentence was cut short when Trump pardoned him along with the other nearly 1600 rioters in one of his first acts when he returned to office for his second term.
