Aquilino Gonell
Unwilling to accept the results of the 2020 election, Donald Trump urged supporters toward the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. Few accounts convey that day’s violence and human cost more powerfully than that of U.S. Capitol Police Sergeant Aquilino Gonell.
Born in the Dominican Republic, Gonell immigrated to Brooklyn with his mother at twelve and later became a citizen. At nineteen, he joined the U.S. Army, served in Iraq, and joined the Capitol Police in 2006. During sixteen years on the force, he rose to sergeant before injuries ended his career.
On January 6, Gonell was stationed on the Capitol’s West Front as a mob sought to stop certification of the election. For hours, he and his colleagues fought to prevent rioters from breaching the building. After reviewing video evidence, Gonell estimated that more than forty people assaulted him. He was punched, bitten, struck with poles and his own baton, and repeatedly sprayed with chemical irritants. His foot was crushed, his hand injured, his shoulder dislocated, and his bicep torn. Even combat in Iraq, he said, had not prepared him for the violence.
Yet amid the chaos, Gonell retained his humanity. When a rioter suffered a facial wound, he and other officers tried to help him, only to be attacked by protesters who believed police were harming the man. “I had tried to see the humanity in that man,” Gonell recalled. “I was trying to help him.”
Multiple surgeries, months of rehabilitation, and treatment for post-traumatic stress followed. Unable to meet policing’s physical demands, he retired in December 2022.
Gonell testified before the House January 6 committee and at trials of those accused of assaulting him. He co-authored American Shield: The Immigrant Sergeant Who Defended Democracy and continues resisting efforts to minimize or rewrite the attack. After Trump granted clemency to January 6 defendants in 2025, including people convicted of attacking police, Gonell said he felt betrayed.
Gonell resists being called a hero: “I was just doing my job.” His grandfather’s counsel remains his guide: “No matter what happens, don’t sacrifice your character or your integrity.”
Economic upheaval has often provided fertile ground for demagogues who exploit fear, hate, and resentment to accumulate political power.
“I always have this sense of wanting to help other people you know, trying to protect those who I care about and those who are less fortunate or vulnerable.”
WASHINGTON, DC – JULY 16, 2025