Dennis Collins: Welcome to Heroes Behind the Badge.

We bring you the real stories of America's law enforcement professionals.

Our founder and CEO, Craig Floyd, he never planned to start this organization, but

something happened that made him realize he could not stay silent.

No one has worked longer or harder than Craig Floyd to support law enforcement.

Today we're bringing you something unprecedented.

For the first time since he was exonerated, you'll hear the real story of

January 6th from the man who led law enforcement's response that day.

For me, it was telling the story of what really happened in the days and weeks leading

up to January 6th, on January 6th, and then in the fallout that occurred after it.

Agencies live and die on their, um, leadership.

And I wrote this to really help the leadership.

Eventually someone's going to take this and look and see how political

influences can affect you, the importance of relationships, mutual aids.

In our conversation with former U.

S.

Capitol Police Chief Stephen Sund, he revealed shocking details about what really

happened that day, starting with the impossible odds his officers faced.

At one point, they counted 30, 000 people on the West Front on January 6th.

And then at 12:53, as we're dealing with that, somebody looks up and says,

Chief, there's a large crowd of people approaching our West Front.

I look up and I literally see hundreds of people coming across.

The Maryland Avenue, um, uh, circle up toward the, uh, West Front and then the Peace Circle by Pennsylvania

Avenue coming up toward the, uh, the West Front, um, and immediately became confrontational with my officers.

And that's when I knew there's a couple of key things that I knew were bad.

One, The fact that, like most protests, they'll come up and they'll start chanting

and yelling and screaming and then eventually you might start pulling on the fence.

This happened rather quickly.

They started grabbing at the fence, yanking at the fence, and then striking at my officers.

Dennis Collins: But that was just the beginning.

As the situation became critical, Chief Sund made call after call, desperately trying to get help for his officers.

And then at 12:58, I made my first call to the Capitol Police Board, the two Sergeant Arms.

Requesting permission to bring in those resources that by law I have to ask permission to bring in think

about it It would take 71 minutes 11 repeated calls to them before I finally got approval So, you

know anybody that thinks well, why why would they deny it on on the third when you ask it in advance?

Why would they deny it while we're under attack?

The attack was occurring right at stinger's window right outside his window and I still it took 71

minutes Repeated calls for them to finally approve my request to bring in resources.

Dennis Collins: You know, we hadn't really heard how close did it come, and apparently it was pretty close.

Chief Sund: It was.

It was maybe, maybe 15 yards.

And you needed to realize when the attack began at 12:53, that's almost two hours.

Two hours that these officers are hearing over the radio that this crowd's getting closer, closer, and closer.

Uh, and, uh, 100%, the, uh, the evacuation of the House and Senate should have been called much quicker.

Uh, but needless to say, um, getting closer and closer and closer, and now,

almost two hours later, you have literally the last physical barrier is being breached.

Dennis Collins: While his officers fought to protect the Capitol and Congress, Chief Sun found

himself fighting a different battle, one against politics and bureaucracy.

This is a life and death situation, I need National Guard assistance as quickly as

possible to help re secure the perimeter, exactly what I wanted to do.

And that's when Walter Piot responds, I don't like the optics of the National Guard.

That's the second time I've heard the term optics.

I don't like the optics of the National Guard standing in line with the Capitol in the background.

And he starts saying, I'd rather relieve your officers off posts so they can get in the fight.

I tell him, I said, I don't have that option.

Every one of my officers is in the fight.

And he's like, well, you know, I don't like the optics.

We keep going back and forth.

And he keeps recommending that he relieve my officers.

And I said, sir, you don't realize my officers are all in the fight.

I don't have officers out there on traffic posts.

They're all in the fight.

And he responds, and I will never forget this.

My recommendation is not to support your request.

I remember Robert Conte as he said, hold on a second.

You're denying the request from the Capitol police chief.

And again, Walter Piat says the same thing is I'm not denying it.

I just don't like the optics.

2:43 PM.

We now have a shooting inside the Capitol.

You know the Pentagon wasn't sending me resources, but you know what they were doing?

They were sending resources to secure General's homes that weren't even under attack.

So think about that.

2:43, I hang up the phone call.

I'm thinking, I got no idea what, what's going to happen.

I didn't get any results from that.

Uh, it wouldn't be until 5:44 p.

m.

that the 1st Cadre and National Guard showed up.

And at that point, I didn't even need them anymore.

I'd called in 17 law enforcement agencies, 1, 700 police officers had responded to my call for assistance.

Police officers from as far away as New Jersey State Police responded to my request.

Uh, and arrived at the, uh, Capitol before the National Guard, D.

C.

National Guard, which were within eyesight.

Think about that.

Dennis Collins: Join us for a three part conversation with former U.

S.

Capitol Police Chief Stephen Sund to discuss his best selling book, Courage Under Fire.

Chief Sund: The political oversight and the political

involvement in security on Capitol Hill has got to stop.

Um, the Capitol Police Board, you have three, I mentioned the three people, uh, House and Senate Sergeant Arms,

the Architect of the Capitol, all three politically appointed people, all three, uh, catering to their, Uh, whoever put

them in, in, in position, uh, to make sure that they're making decisions that'll, that'll please them.

That's, that's a big problem.

Dennis Collins: Join us next week for part one of Courage Under Fire, the Stephen Son story.

You'll hear how the events of January 6th really unfolded, the

crucial decisions made that day, and the price paid by the men and women.

Who protected our democracy.

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