Latest / Heroes Behind the Badge / Courage Under Fire: The Untold Story of January 6th Series Preview

Transcript

Courage Under Fire: The Untold Story of January 6th Series Preview · Heroes Behind the Badge

• 0:08
  Dennis Collins: Welcome to Heroes Behind the Badge.
• 0:10
  We bring you the real stories of America's law enforcement professionals.
• 0:19
  Our founder and CEO, Craig Floyd, he never planned to start this organization, but
• 0:24
  something happened that made him realize he could not stay silent.
• 0:31
  No one has worked longer or harder than Craig Floyd to support law enforcement.
• 0:40
  Today we're bringing you something unprecedented.
• 0:43
  For the first time since he was exonerated, you'll hear the real story of
• 0:48
  January 6th from the man who led law enforcement's response that day.
• 0:52
  Chief Sund: For me, it was telling the story of what really happened in the days and weeks leading
• 0:57
  up to January 6th, on January 6th, and then in the fallout that occurred after it.
• 1:04
  Agencies live and die on their, um, leadership.
• 1:07
  And I wrote this to really help the leadership.
• 1:10
  Eventually someone's going to take this and look and see how political
• 1:13
  influences can affect you, the importance of relationships, mutual aids.
• 1:18
  Dennis Collins: In our conversation with former U.
• 1:20
  S.
• 1:20
  Capitol Police Chief Stephen Sund, he revealed shocking details about what really
• 1:26
  happened that day, starting with the impossible odds his officers faced.
• 1:31
  Chief Sund: At one point, they counted 30, 000 people on the West Front on January 6th.
• 1:39
  And then at 12:53, as we're dealing with that, somebody looks up and says,
• 1:44
  Chief, there's a large crowd of people approaching our West Front.
• 1:46
  I look up and I literally see hundreds of people coming across.
• 1:49
  The Maryland Avenue, um, uh, circle up toward the, uh, West Front and then the Peace Circle by Pennsylvania
• 1:55
  Avenue coming up toward the, uh, the West Front, um, and immediately became confrontational with my officers.
• 2:01
  And that's when I knew there's a couple of key things that I knew were bad.
• 2:04
  One, The fact that, like most protests, they'll come up and they'll start chanting
• 2:07
  and yelling and screaming and then eventually you might start pulling on the fence.
• 2:11
  This happened rather quickly.
• 2:12
  They started grabbing at the fence, yanking at the fence, and then striking at my officers.
• 2:17
  Dennis Collins: But that was just the beginning.
• 2:19
  As the situation became critical, Chief Sund made call after call, desperately trying to get help for his officers.
• 2:29
  Chief Sund: And then at 12:58, I made my first call to the Capitol Police Board, the two Sergeant Arms.
• 2:34
  Requesting permission to bring in those resources that by law I have to ask permission to bring in think
• 2:39
  about it It would take 71 minutes 11 repeated calls to them before I finally got approval So, you
• 2:47
  know anybody that thinks well, why why would they deny it on on the third when you ask it in advance?
• 2:53
  Why would they deny it while we're under attack?
• 2:55
  The attack was occurring right at stinger's window right outside his window and I still it took 71
• 3:00
  minutes Repeated calls for them to finally approve my request to bring in resources.
• 3:05
  Dennis Collins: You know, we hadn't really heard how close did it come, and apparently it was pretty close.
• 3:11
  Chief Sund: It was.
• 3:11
  It was maybe, maybe 15 yards.
• 3:13
  And you needed to realize when the attack began at 12:53, that's almost two hours.
• 3:21
  Two hours that these officers are hearing over the radio that this crowd's getting closer, closer, and closer.
• 3:26
  Uh, and, uh, 100%, the, uh, the evacuation of the House and Senate should have been called much quicker.
• 3:32
  Uh, but needless to say, um, getting closer and closer and closer, and now,
• 3:37
  almost two hours later, you have literally the last physical barrier is being breached.
• 3:43
  Dennis Collins: While his officers fought to protect the Capitol and Congress, Chief Sun found
• 3:47
  himself fighting a different battle, one against politics and bureaucracy.
• 3:53
  Chief Sund: This is a life and death situation, I need National Guard assistance as quickly as
• 3:57
  possible to help re secure the perimeter, exactly what I wanted to do.
• 4:00
  And that's when Walter Piot responds, I don't like the optics of the National Guard.
• 4:05
  That's the second time I've heard the term optics.
• 4:07
  I don't like the optics of the National Guard standing in line with the Capitol in the background.
• 4:11
  And he starts saying, I'd rather relieve your officers off posts so they can get in the fight.
• 4:16
  I tell him, I said, I don't have that option.
• 4:18
  Every one of my officers is in the fight.
• 4:19
  And he's like, well, you know, I don't like the optics.
• 4:22
  We keep going back and forth.
• 4:23
  And he keeps recommending that he relieve my officers.
• 4:27
  And I said, sir, you don't realize my officers are all in the fight.
• 4:29
  I don't have officers out there on traffic posts.
• 4:32
  They're all in the fight.
• 4:33
  And he responds, and I will never forget this.
• 4:35
  My recommendation is not to support your request.
• 4:38
  I remember Robert Conte as he said, hold on a second.
• 4:41
  You're denying the request from the Capitol police chief.
• 4:45
  And again, Walter Piat says the same thing is I'm not denying it.
• 4:48
  I just don't like the optics.
• 4:51
  2:43 PM.
• 4:52
  We now have a shooting inside the Capitol.
• 4:55
  You know the Pentagon wasn't sending me resources, but you know what they were doing?
• 4:59
  They were sending resources to secure General's homes that weren't even under attack.
• 5:03
  So think about that.
• 5:04
  2:43, I hang up the phone call.
• 5:06
  I'm thinking, I got no idea what, what's going to happen.
• 5:09
  I didn't get any results from that.
• 5:12
  Uh, it wouldn't be until 5:44 p.
• 5:15
  m.
• 5:15
  that the 1st Cadre and National Guard showed up.
• 5:18
  And at that point, I didn't even need them anymore.
• 5:20
  I'd called in 17 law enforcement agencies, 1, 700 police officers had responded to my call for assistance.
• 5:26
  Police officers from as far away as New Jersey State Police responded to my request.
• 5:31
  Uh, and arrived at the, uh, Capitol before the National Guard, D.
• 5:35
  C.
• 5:35
  National Guard, which were within eyesight.
• 5:38
  Think about that.
• 5:40
  Dennis Collins: Join us for a three part conversation with former U.
• 5:43
  S.
• 5:43
  Capitol Police Chief Stephen Sund to discuss his best selling book, Courage Under Fire.
• 5:50
  Chief Sund: The political oversight and the political
• 5:52
  involvement in security on Capitol Hill has got to stop.
• 5:56
  Um, the Capitol Police Board, you have three, I mentioned the three people, uh, House and Senate Sergeant Arms,
• 6:02
  the Architect of the Capitol, all three politically appointed people, all three, uh, catering to their, Uh, whoever put
• 6:09
  them in, in, in position, uh, to make sure that they're making decisions that'll, that'll please them.
• 6:13
  That's, that's a big problem.
• 6:20
  Dennis Collins: Join us next week for part one of Courage Under Fire, the Stephen Son story.
• 6:27
  You'll hear how the events of January 6th really unfolded, the
• 6:31
  crucial decisions made that day, and the price paid by the men and women.
• 6:36
  Who protected our democracy.
• 6:38
  Subscribe now to Heroes Behind the Badge, wherever you get your podcasts.