Capitol Police officer Aquilino Gonell has repeatedly testified under oath and in federal court that he suffered near-death injuries on January 6. New security video contradicts his claims.
For nearly two years, Capitol police officer Aquilino Gonell was off the job or on partial duty, insisting the severe physical and mental injuries he sustained on January 6, 2021 prevented him from doing his job as a federal law enforcement officer.
In news interviews and on social media, Gonell has told his sob story about how violent rioters inflicted debilitating foot, shoulder, and head injuries that day. He routinely posts images of those alleged injuries, including several photos of a foot with stitches and surgical tape and pictures of his ongoing shoulder therapy.
A regular at the D.C. federal courthouse, which is the site of every January 6-related trial and hearing, Gonell—who is occasionally a government witness—said in a victim impact statement filed in May that he was “bleeding from both hands, [had] a maimed foot, hit on the head, sprayed with pepper and bear spray, beaten, punched, pushed, pulled, and assaulted by many other rioters” on the afternoon of January 6.
But new video published by reporter Joe Hanneman at The Epoch Times this week contradicts Gonell’s claims. For more than seven minutes, Gonell, highlighted in the video below, is seen moving and walking with no sign of pain. (This segment begins at roughly 4:50 p.m. after confrontations with police and protested had ended.)
Both shoulders appear to have full mobility; he is seen at one point kicking a medical kit and walking around without any indication either foot is injured. His hands look unscathed.
Hanneman posted the footage captured by Capitol security cameras that shows desperate and futile attempts by first responders to resuscitate Rosanne Boyland, a Trump supporter from Georgia, who died after being hit in the chest with a pepper bar deployed by police inside a packed tunnel on the west side of the building, according to a witness. A D.C. Metro police officer is also seen on separate video striking Boyland at least twice as she laid motionless on the ground before paramedics could get to her.
By Julie Kelly
