Capitol Police Sgt. Still Remembers Faces of People Who Attacked Him on Jan 6th

Sgt. Aquilino Gonell sat in his Virginia backyard–a 45-year-old Dominican American with a shaved head, dressed in a simple “Veteran” shirt bearing an American flag on his sleeve. He looked away into the distance as he recounted what happened to him on January 6th, 2021, defending the front lines at the U.S. Capitol where he had worked as U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) then for 16 years.

“Both my hands were injured, my foot was injured –my right foot– and then,” he stopped halfway through a word, his face tied in a knot. He was describing the moment that D.C. Metropolitan Police officer, Michael Fanone, had taken his spot in holding off the crowd in a bottlenecked tunnel that would allow the crowd access to the elected representatives inside, gathered for a joint session of 117th Congress to certify the electoral college vote for U.S. President. Most in the crowd outside believed the election was a “steal.” In the few minutes that Sgt. Gonell had gone to the bathroom, Fanone was dragged into the mob, beaten, tased, and threatened to be killed with his own gun.

Finally, the Sergeant continued, “I don’t think I would have survived” the attack.

Michael Fanone had ended up in that situation because he took his spot, Sgt. Gonell said. “That’s something that I’ll carry for the rest of my life.” Though they’ve talked since that day and Fanone told him he doesn’t blame him at all, some days Gonell still wonders why he hadn’t stayed and taken the beating instead.

Sgt. Gonell was deployed in Iraq in the U.S. army for 545 days, then returned home and defended the country as a US Capitol Police officer: In total he spent 25 years working as a public service officer. Despite that, the January 6 mob assault left him unable to work those jobs again, after suffering multiple injuries at the hands of fellow Americans whom he had fought to protect. Now he is coming to New York City for Veterans day. He will be on a public Dominican Veteran of America Authors book panel https://aquilinogonell.com/events/mwd5kdvrr0ywa4vry6igi3jhgcj63ion November 10th, and a public panel https://www.nyubookstoreevents.com/event-details-registration/free-secrets-of-publishing-panel at the NYU bookstore on November 11.

In his book, “American Shield: The Immigrant Who Defended Democracy,” which will be released in paperback tied to Veterans Day after last year’s hardcover publication, he recounts how his experience as an immigrant brought him into the military and police force. Yet, increasingly, he says, Americans across party lines see the combination of immigrant and veteran cop as a contradiction. “I’m the type of immigrant they say they want in this country,” he said. “Someone who assimilates, comes legally, becomes a productive member of society, who goes to war for the defense of this society, who then joined the police and defended the United States Congress.” His military and police service, he writes in his book, hasn’t stopped strangers from giving him condescending stares or viewing him as ‘less American’ because of his accent or ethnicity.

His co-author, Susan Shapiro, writer of “The Bosnia List: A Memoir of War, Exile, and Return” and New York Times bestseller “Unhooked: How to Quit Anything,” says that although she had read many books about January 6th, Gonell’s story stuck out. “There was something particularly fascinating to me about an immigrant of color who is defending democracy at the Capitol building against white supremacists,” she said.

Gonell’s journey was fraught with challenges. Born into a poor farming family in the Dominican Republic, he immigrated to Brooklyn at age 12, with his father promising better economic opportunities. But for young Gonell, America brought feelings of isolation, the inability to communicate, and a complicated family life. He witnessed his father getting stabbed twice. When he met two Spanish-speaking teachers who offered him the support he long needed, he decided to start focusing on school. Despite his hard work, he could only afford one of the three colleges he got into –Long Island University. Though he made the Dean’s List and Honors program, after one year at LIU he realized he couldn’t afford that either. So he jumped at the opportunity to join the U.S. Army Reserve, from which he was deployed to Iraq.

Returning home in 2005, Gonell had to confront his PTSD while finishing college and finding a job. He joined the USCP, where he worked for 17 years. At the start of 2021, he was happily married and supporting his college-attending wife and 9-year-old son. He was also awaiting a promotion after passing the Lieutenant’s exam. Shapiro said, “It was almost like in a movie where you hear somebody say, ‘Oh, this is the happiest day of my life’, and you know that something horrible is going to happen.” Before the insurrection, Gonell’s story had a happy, neat ending. Then it didn’t.

Gonell had always viewed himself as bipartisan –what mattered to him was the oath he took to protect the U.S Constitution and the nation. He was the type of immigrant Republicans said they wanted. But after the Jan. 6 assault left him needing multiple surgeries and a deep moral injury from being beaten by the people he’d fought abroad to protect, he wanted accountability.

When Gonell first started speaking up about his experience on January 6th, he didn’t view it as politically charged or partisan. Yet when he told his story, he says that only two of the over 235 Republicans in the U.S. House and Senate that he had defended that day –the party who ‘backed the blue’ until then– thanked him for his service. He didn’t do it for praise, he said, but seeing people he’d fought publicly approving of his assailants felt like a betrayal.

These days he spends his time gardening, appealing for public safety officer benefits, and checking for upcoming criminal court cases involving the January 6th riot so he can offer his testimony. There have been over 1,243 ‘Capitol Breach’ cases in court already. The FBI still has a category for “capitol violence” on their Most Wanted list as they continue the search. Gonell checks the upcoming two weeks of U.S. attorney’s office cases to see if he recognizes anyone who attacked him by name, face, or clothing.

Gonell ended the interview by showing his garden, which included a small vegetable patch, a surviving Gandules Pigeon Pea tree from the Dominican Republic, and roses for his wife. When he was unable to work and going through multiple surgeries after January 6th, his wife left nursing school to care for him. Now he takes care of the roses bushes for her.

If you know a veteran, he said, reach out to them, but be mindful of how you offer support. Acknowledging that they need help can be difficult for veterans – it was for Gonell. Support them when they go through that process. “Be a friend, be a shoulder,” the Sergeant said.