A U.S. Capitol police officer who suffered serious injuries in the line of duty during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, formally announced he is stepping down from the job this week “to focus on healing.”
U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell said he originally planned a full return but his medical condition won’t allow it.
“Having to return to the scene of the crime almost every day has become taxing, unbearable and not conducive to healing,” he wrote in a letter obtained by NBC News.
Gonell’s departure, which will take place on Dec. 17, had been previewed by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) during a public hearing of the House select committee investigating Jan. 6.
“On June 28, a team of doctors told him that permanent injuries he has suffered to his left shoulder and right foot now make it impossible for him to continue as a police officer. He must leave policing for good and figure out the rest of his life,” Raskin said in July.
In his letter, Gonell said he sought advice from his doctor, mental health providers and his family to make this decision.
“I think it’s in my best interest to take time off away from the daily reminders that keep re-triggering my trauma,” he explained.
Gonell, an Army veteran, said Jan. 6 was “the first time, I was more afraid to work at the Capitol than during my entire Army deployment to Iraq.”
“Nothing in my experience in the Army, or as a law enforcement officer, prepared me for what we confronted on Jan. 6,” he told the Jan. 6 panel during its first hearing last year, according to NPR.
Gonell has also criticized former President Donald Trump’s role in the riot.
“Our own president set us up,” Gonell told HuffPost’s Igor Bobic in June.
He continued: “The president should be doing everything possible to help us and he didn’t do it. He wanted to lead the mob and wanted to lead the crowd himself ... he wanted to be a tyrant.”
Earlier this year, Gonell testified in the trials of rioters Kyle Fitzsimons and Mark Ponder.