"Medieval Battle": Police Testify To US Capitol Riot Probe

Six months after hundreds of Trump's supporters conducted the worst assault on the Capitol building since the war of 1812, the work of the committee has become a major political flashpoint.

Wiping away tears, a police officer told a rapt US congressional hearing Tuesday he believed "this is how I'm going to die" while defending the Capitol on January 6 against a rampaging mob branding him a traitor. Another recalled how he was beaten unconscious by rioters supportive of then-president Donald Trump and said he "went to hell and back" protecting US lawmakers and the citadel of American democracy. The gripping accounts served as opening testimony in a landmark hearing of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack, which opened with hair-raising videos of the deadly attack. But it was the dramatic personal recollections of officers under siege by people they described as "terrorists" that set the tone in a closely-watched session.