The FBI responded to a call for assistance from the SWAT team at the Capitol just after 3 PM on January 6, following a request from Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund. However, the FBI only dispatched 55 agents, marking a notable discrepancy in the expected response. Earlier, around 2:12 PM, the FBI’s Washington Field Office was contacted to help as chaos erupted at the Capitol.
Sund expressed confusion about claims that 274 special agents were deployed to manage the crowd. He emphasized that the agents on-site, wearing body armor, were ill-equipped for crowd control tasks. “They are not trained for it,” he remarked, suggesting they should have had more appropriate gear, like tactical helmets or gas masks.
As Sund sorted through the situation, he noted that he accounted for 55 special agents, corroborating numbers he received during the mutual aid call. “I’ve been told repeatedly it was 55 from the FBI,” he stated, indicating a significant variance from the 274 agents cited by some reports.
His coordination with Deputy FBI Director David Bowdich led to plans to use the FBI SWAT team. Sund rejected the idea of sending them directly to Capitol members, suggesting a safer location instead. During the chaotic day, some agents were responding to threats, including the discovery of pipe bombs linked to both major political parties.
Despite the originally claimed numbers, Sund insisted that the actual deployment was much lower. Active communication was initiated for mutual assistance shortly before further assistance requests worsened.
The rapid mobilization of nearly 1,800 officers to the Capitol was ultimately triggered by Ashli Babbitt’s shooting at around 2:44 PM, which heightened the urgency of the situation. Security footage showed tactical teams arriving shortly after to clear out remaining protesters.
Concerningly, the only shots fired within the Capitol that day were linked to Babbitt, and reports of other incidents on the radio appeared to exaggerate the circumstances. Sund noted a lack of clarity surrounding the day’s events, which eventually led to his resignation amid mounting scrutiny of the response to the riots.
