One Capitol Police officer is being hailed as the man who saved America’s democracy on Wednesday, January 6 after diverting an angry mob from the Senate floor. Viral videos of his confrontation with a leader of the rioters showed how the officer, identified by CNN as Eugene Goodman, blocked the hallway and led the riots away from the room that would later confirm Joe Biden as President of the United States of America.
“His name is USCP Officer Eugene Goodman. Remember his name. He almost certainly saved lives on Wednesday,” tweeted CNN reporter Kristin Wilson. “My thanks, Officer Goodman. THANK YOU.”
In the video, Goodman glances to his left and realizes the throughway to the Senate as the angry group of MAGA supporters stormed the Capitol. Realizing he was only armed with a baton and alone, he pushed back the supposed leader of the group, Doug Jensen from Des Moines, wearing a black QAnon shirt.
Goodman is then seen shoving Jensen in his direction away from the Senate chambers, tricking the angry, all-white lads to pursue him in the opposite direction into a group of police waiting at the corridors outside the Senate. This gave the police ample time to properly secure the chamber.
U.S. Representative Bill Pascrell wrote in a Twitter message on Sunday, “As trump’s fascist mob ransacked the US Capitol, this brave USCP officer kept murderous rioters away from the Senate chamber and saved the lives of those inside. God bless him for his courage.”
Jensen, 41, on his now-deleted Facebook page, openly supports President Donald Trump and QAnon. According to USA Today, QAnon is a conspiracy movement that “falsely alleges the existence of a satanic ‘deep state’ apparatus that supports a child sex trafficking ring shirt.” Jensen has since been fired from his job and was arrested later by the FBI on five federal charges in his home in Des Moines. The unprecedented incident left five people – including a Capitol officer – dead.
Prior to the rioting, the pro-Trump supporters gathered at the nation’s capital to protest against allegations of voter fraud during the November 3 presidential election – allegations which had been labeled as baseless – and to call on the Senate and the House of Representatives to reject the certification of the results.
The rioting was also spurred by a speech Trump gave while addressing them as he reiterated the election was fraudulent and called on the protesters to “walk down to the Capitol.”
The Chief of the Capitol Police, Steven Sund, has since resigned after the attack. Assistant Chief Yogananda Pittman has been designated by the U.S. Capitol Police as its new Acting Chief.
Pittman’s January 8 appointment makes her the first woman and the first African American to serve as chief of the U.S. Capitol Police, according to a statement.
