I Praise and Salute Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards; She is an American Hero

By: Donald V. Watkins

Copyrighted and Published on April 4, 2025

Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards

An Editorial Opinion

In the age of Trumpism, America is redefining its attitude toward police officers, prosecutors, and judges. At one time, these law enforcement professionals were held in high esteem. Today, they are not.

I have always supported and defended police officers who perform their duties in a brave and professional manner. One of them is Caroline Edwards, a Capitol police officer.

Officer Edwards was the first Capitol police officer who was injured by the incoming mob that breached the Capitol grounds in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021.  In my view, she is an American hero.

At the beginning of the attack, a group of Arizona Proud Boys approached the Peace Circle barricade.  Edwards called for help on the radio, which was heard by other officers around the building and was a sign that the mob was overrunning the police. 

Office Edwards attempted to delay the mob’s approach towards the Capitol while backup was arriving.  Proud Boys leader Joseph Biggs encouraged Ryan Samsel to approach the bike rack by which Edwards was posted.  Samsel then pushed the bike rack over, which hit Officer Edwards on the head.  This made Edwards fall, and while falling, her chin hit the handrail of the steps behind her, causing a concussion which made her lose consciousness.  She then hit the back of her head on one of the steps behind her, cracking it.  The concussion gave her a traumatic brain injury. The mob then began attacking the other officers, who were pushed back.

Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards lies unconscious on the ground.

Edwards awoke minutes later while she was being picked up by Samsel, and then she shook him off and began treating the injured on the scene, such as decontaminating those who were pepper-sprayed.  She then continued the defense, rushing to support the officers who had been pushed back and were holding a line in the Capitol's lower West Terrace.  She felt confused and dizzy while doing it.  She then engaged with the mob in hand-to-hand combat for hours. While fighting, she was teargassed and pepper-sprayed in her eyes.  

The Capitol attack went on for four hours after Ryan Samsel's first assault. Edwards stopped many rioters from entering the building; at one point, she spotted a rioter heading towards an evacuation route for the Capitol's occupants, and handcuffed him, taking him to a prisoner processing section of the Capitol Police headquarters building.

Edwards then blacked out inside the building and was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Silver Spring, Maryland, because the hospitals in Washington D.C. were full. The hospital gave her a CT scan and put her in a neck collar.

Edwards later described the violence at the Capitol this way:

“I couldn’t believe my eyes: There were officers on the ground. They were bleeding. They were throwing up. I saw friends with blood all over their faces. I was slipping in people’s blood. I was catching people as they fell. It was carnage. It was chaos. I can’t even describe what I saw. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that as a police officer, as a law enforcement officer, I would find myself in the middle of a battle.”

The Aftermath of the Mob Attack Caroline Edwards

Officer Edwards temporarily left the force due to her injuries.  For months after the attack, Edwards was bedridden, and had episodes of vertigo, migraines, and fainting likely caused by the traumatic brain injury.  

In May 2021, Edwards returned to the Capitol Police force as a peer counselor for mental health.

Ryan Samsel was arrested in January 2021.  In October 2023, Samsel went on trial, charged with assault on police with and without a dangerous weapon (a felony), obstruction of an official proceeding (a felony), and an act of physical violence on the Capitol grounds or in buildings (a misdemeanor).  Samsel had pled not guilty, and Edwards testified against him and four other co-defendants during the trial.  

The trial ended in December 2023, and on February 2, 2024, Samsel was convicted of all of the charges. 

On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump pardoned Samsel and around 1,500 other people charged with crimes connected to the January 6 attack without affording Officer Edwards or any other victims of the mob’s violent attacks the customary opportunity to object to the issuance of these pardons. Samsel was released from custody the following day. 

No Republican member of Congress condemned Trump's pardons of the violent January 6 rioters who attacked Capitol police officers.

Trump now calls the pardoned January 6 attackers “patriots” and has signaled his intent to compensate them for the “suffering” they experienced in the federal criminal justice system.

Meanwhile, Officer Caroline Edwards continues to suffer from migraines arising from her brain injury and she must take monthly medication for it.

What is more, the Trump White House has fired the front line prosecutors who brought Samsel and other violent members of the January 6 mob to justice. Trump's executive actions in this regard show me exactly which side of the "law and order" issue he is on.

Epilogue

At no time has anyone claimed that Officer Caroline Edwards abused her authority as a police officer when she defended the Capitol on January 6, 2021. She fought, bled, and sustained critical injuries for America and the rule of law that day. Donald Trump has never called Officer Edwards a "patriot."

Sometimes in life, we must pick sides.  I am on the side of Officer Caroline Edwards and all of the brave, professional police officers who put their lives on the line to protect our public safety each and every day.  Without hesitation or reservation, I condemn any person who assaults, injures, or kills a police officer in the line and scope of his/her duty.  Those who aid, abet, or comfort the attackers, for whatever reason, are misguided in their thinking.

Donald Trump was wrong for pardoning the rioters who attacked and injured Officer Edwards and the other police officers who defended the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

For me, standing up for police officers who are injured or killed in the performance of their duties is NOT a political issue.  It is strictly a “law and order” issue.  Anyone who cannot stand with me on this issue is a weak, spineless, coward.