Officer’s Injury From Capitol Attack Remains, Those Responsible Are Free
Caroline Edwards is just 34 but she will be imprisoned for the rest of her life under the specter of falling to traumatic brain injury (TBI), a condition that grows progressively worse and kills more than 69,000 Americans each year.
Ryan Samsel is much more fortunate as he was not hurt when he attacked Edwards, then 31, a Private First-Class officer with the U.S. Capitol Police.
Samsel was part of a swarm of violent protesters when he rammed Edwards with a metal bike rack, causing her to suffer a concussion and likely TBI. The incident was one of many violent acts committed against the diminutive, 5-feet-4 Edwards and many other members of an undermanned force trying to protect the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021; Samsel was trying to destroy it.
Edwards will live with the scars of the assault forever while Samsel was sentenced to 20 years in prison but is a free man, having been pardoned by trump along with 1,500 other trump supporters who raged through the Capitol and were later convicted of being involved in the riot.
Trump has called the attacks on police officers during the January 6 riots “minor incidents.” Trump had called the rioters “political prisoners” and had vowed to pardon those convicted of being involved in the riots, including violent and non-violent participants.
The January 6 riots started as a mass of trump supporters stormed the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., sparked by false claims of election fraud made by Trump. A total of 174 police officers were injured during the attacks and five people were dead within 36 hours of the incident.
Trump said this week that most of those who were imprisoned because of their involvement in the riots were “absolutely innocent.”
“Nobody’s ever been treated so badly. They were treated like the worst criminals in history,” trump said in a Fox TV interview.
Asked about his pardons for those convicted for assaulting officers, trump said, “They were very minor incidents, and it was time.”
Samsel had gone to the Capitol with his girlfriend, Raechel Genco, 38, of Bristol Township, Pa. Genco was charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority. Authorities said that Genco walked through police barriers during the insurrection.
Genco pleaded guilty June 29, 2022, to violent entry and disorderly conduct on the Capitol grounds. She was sentenced to 12 months of probation and ordered to pay $500 in restitution fees. Genco also was pardoned by trump.
On January 6, 2023, Edwards and 13 other officers (three of them posthumous) were awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Joe Biden for their work in protecting the Capitol. The medal recognizes “citizens of the United States of America who have performed exemplary deeds of service for their country, or their fellow citizens.”
For his role, Samsel was granted unconditional freedom by trump.
Edwards was the first Capitol Police officer to be injured by the rioters on the day of the attack. She was stationed on the West front of the Capitol as the rioters began to breach makeshift barriers made from metal bike racks.
Edwards called on her police radio for backup help, and alerted several other officers around the Capitol that the police were being overrun by the mob. Suddenly, Edwards was suddenly confronted by Samsel who pushed her over with a bike rack causing her head to hit a handrail, resulting in a concussion and brief unconsciousness.
Samsel wore a MAGA hat and before the attack, had a private conversation outside the Capitol with Joseph Biggs, a top lieutenant in the far-right group the Proud Boys. Samsel later said that Biggs had pulled him aside and encouraged him to push the barricades, and challenge and confront the police.
Edwards awoke minutes later while she was being picked up by Samsel. She shook him off and began treating the injured on the scene, including decontaminating those who were pepper-sprayed by the attacking horde. Dazed and confused from the fall, Edwards then continued the defense, rushing to support officers who had been pushed back and were holding a line in the Capitol’s lower West Terrace.
She engaged with the mob in hand-to-hand combat for hours and while fighting, was teargassed and pepper-sprayed in her eyes. The attack continued for four hours after Samsel’s first assault. Edwards stopped many rioters from entering the building. She blacked out after handcuffing and taking one rioter to headquarters. An ambulance brought the officer to a hospital in Silver Spring, Md., because the hospitals in Washington D.C. were full.
Months later, Edwards provided key testimony about the violent assaults before the Democratic House Select Committee investigating the attack.
“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,” Edwards told the committee.
Edwards temporarily left the force due to her injuries. For months, she was bedridden, and had episodes of vertigo, migraines, and fainting likely caused by the TBI. As of October 2023, Edwards said she still had migraines from her brain injury and was taking monthly medication by injection.
In May 2021, Edwards returned to the Capitol Police force as a peer counselor for mental health. Edwards currently serves on the Capitol Police Officers union board.
A native of Atlanta, Ga., Edwards’s grandfather was a Marine and Korean War veteran. She attended the University of Georgia Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, graduating cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in public relations. On April 3, 2023, she was awarded the 2023 Dean’s Medal for Leadership Excellence from the University of Georgia Grady College for her “defense of the heart of American democracy.”
“Even after suffering a traumatic brain injury, Officer Edwards patrolled the Capitol’s West Plaza and prevented many rioters from entering the Capitol building. Her fearlessness, her courage and her devotion to duty embody the very best of us,” said Charles N. Davis, dean of Grady College.
Edwards joined the Capitol Police in 2017 and was initially trained by Officer Harry Dunn. For his valor during the attempted insurrection, Dunn was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and Presidential Citizens Medal. He resigned from the department on December 17, 2023 and ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary for Maryland’s 3rd congressional district in the 2024 election. Dunn wrote a memoir about the attack, titled, “Standing My Ground,” which was published on October 24, 2023, by Hachette Books.
Samsel was arrested in January 2021. He was identified through facial recognition software through a picture of his face taken on January 6. In October 2023, Samsel went on trial for assault on police with and without a dangerous weapon and committing an act of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or buildings.
Samsel pled not guilty before Edwards testified against him and four other co-defendants. Prosecutors argued that he was the catalyst for the rioting. Samsel’s lawyer, Stanley Woodward Jr., argued that “Those barricades didn’t fall because of anything Mr. Samsel did or was going to do” … “They were going to fall… It’s not even remotely possible to pin the events of Jan. 6 on Mr. Samsel.”
Woodward said that “bike racks are not a dangerous weapon.”
Woodward’s clients have included others subpoenaed or convicted for the Capitol attack. He also represented Walt Nauta and former trump aid Kash Patel, who were both charged in connection with the case involving secret documents stored at trump’s Mar-a-Lago castle.
Other clients represented by Woodward have included Oath Keeper Kelly Meggs who was convicted of seditious conspiracy and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Also Peter Navarro, a former trump aide who was found guilty of criminal contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena issued by the January 6 committee.
Samsel, 40, was convicted of all charges on Feb. 2, 2024.
Woodward was later replaced with a new attorney John Pierce, who has represented Kyle Rittenhouse, who was acquitted of murder at a protest over the death of unarmed black men. Pierce also was lawyer for disgraced former mayor and trump lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
Samsel, a barber from Bristol, Bucks County, Pa., described himself as a strong trump supporter. He lives with his aunt and uncle and has a history of violent behavior, largely against women.
In 2006 Samsel allegedly attempted to pull a woman off the road in his car because she owed him $60, punched her windshield, and threatened to kill her. In 2007, he reportedly entered a man’s car, and hit him repeatedly in the face, leaving him missing teeth and bloodied.
In 2009, Samsel was convicted of simple assault and reckless endangerment after he held a woman against her will for five hours, choked her until she was unconscious, beating her, and chipped her teeth. Samsel was convicted in 2011 of simple assault, reckless endangerment, disorderly conduct, and unlawful restraint for choking and attacking his pregnant girlfriend, smashing a hot pizza in her face, beating her, pouring a beer over her head, throwing her into a canal, and holding her head under.
In 2015, Samsel was again convicted of simple assault for choking a woman until she was unconscious and hitting her so hard that she suffered a hematoma. In 2019 another woman alleged that Samsel broke into her house violating a restraining order, choked her until she was unconscious, assaulted her, and raped her multiple times.
As of January 2021, police were on state parole in Pennsylvania while police in Riverside, N.J., had an outstanding warrant against him for assault.
In May 2022, Samsel was moved from a federal prison in central Pennsylvania to the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia. While in custody, Samsel allegedly sent a letter that said, “all these poltions [sic] in office need to go, A woodchiper [sic] sounds good’ and ‘I’ll tell people get your wepon’s [sic] Ready Kiss your Kidd’s [sic] good-bye and let’s F***ing go!” He also allegedly made phone calls from prison in which he made statements about “stabbing or punching FBI agents.”
Among other Capitol police officers who were victims of the Capitol riot included:
· Brian Sicknick died after being hospitalized following the riot. Sicknick reportedly suffered two strokes and died of natural causes.
· Howard Liebengood died just days after the insurrection. The cause of death for the15-year police veteran was ruled to be suicide.
· Jeffrey L. Smith died by suicide following the events of Jan 6. He had suffered head injuries at the insurrection.
· Aquilino Gonell suffered injuries as a result of the violence. He is an army veteran who served in Iraq. He is an emigrant from the Dominican Republic.
· Michael Fanone sustained injuries during the attack. He spent two decades with the Metropolitan Police Department before resigning in Dec. of 2021.
· Daniel Hodges was violently attacked and was crushed between doors within the building.