January 6 rioters attacked police with bear spray and WD-40, officers testify

• Capitol police officers recounted the January 6 attack at the trial of accused rioter Guy Reffitt.
• One officer recalled pepper-spraying Reffitt and keeping his right hand free for his firearm.

Pepper balls bounced off Guy Reffitt with seemingly little effect on January 6, 2021, as he climbed the stairs outside the US Capitol in a tactical vest and black helmet with hordes of rioters behind him.

His advance came to a halt only when one Capitol Police officer, Sgt. Matthew Flood, pepper-sprayed Reffitt in the face on the west side of the Capitol building. It was the stopping blow, but it came from a canister in Flood's non-dominant left hand.

On Monday, testifying at the first trial stemming from the January 6 attack, Flood explained that he kept his right hand free in case he needed to draw his police-issued firearm. As the fighting intensified, Flood said he instead pulled out his baton.

"There were only a few of us there. We were definitely outnumbered. That was the weapon I chose to pull out to fight them back," he recalled Monday.

Flood was the final witness the Justice Department called in its prosecution of Reffitt, who has pleaded not guilty to charges he obstructed an official proceeding and carried a gun during the Capitol attack. With Flood and another Capitol police officer who testified Monday, the Justice Department closed its case with vivid pictures of the brutality and violence that unfolded on January 6.

Capitol Police Sgt. Adam DesCamp, who attempted to stop Reffitt with a pepper ball launcher, recalled how rioters pinned his arms and dismantled his weapon as he and other officers tried to hold a line. At one point, he said, a rioter pulled down his mask and sprayed him directly with WD-40 or brake cleaner, he said. Another rioter then used pepper spray on him.

"They sprayed me with carbon choke cleaner or brake cleaner and put my mask back on my face," DesCamp said. "They pushed my mask aside again and used the bear spray and sprayed it directly into my face."

DesCamp and Flood's testimony came days after a Capitol police officer who's since left the force, Shauni Kerkhoff, shared her own recollection of the January 6 attack and Reffitt's role in it.

Their testimony had the combined effect of underscoring a key point of the prosecutors' case: While he did not enter the building itself, Reffitt led the angry mob that swelled and swarmed the Capitol on January 6.

On Monday, DesCamp and Flood both recounted Reffitt calling police "traitors" and urging them to allow the pro-Trump mob inside the Capitol. As Reffitt climbed up the stairs, other rioters used knives to cut through a tarp on the inaugural scaffolding, allowing the mob to close in on the Capitol.

DesCamp said that, as he fired marble-sized pepper balls at Reffitt, he could hear a sound suggesting that his target was wearing protective armor.

"He didn't do anything. He continued to proceed up the railing," DesCamp testified. Prosecutors showed video footage during the testimony in which Reffitt could be seen waving the crowd forward after being pepper-sprayed.

Reffitt's defense lawyer, William Welch, used his questioning in cross-examination to separate Reffitt from the violence. DesCamp and Flood both answered "no" as Welch asked whether Reffitt had touched them or tried to take their weapons.

With one question, Welch asked Flood to confirm that his decision to draw his baton was not "in response" to Reffitt.

"It was in response to the situation that was on the stairs," Flood answered. Of Reffitt, Flood added, "He'd been pepper-sprayed, [but] was still there."

Flood previously testified that he did not use his firearm, in part, out of concern that the situation "might become more violent."

The Justice Department rested its case following Flood's testimony, and Welch said he doesn't plan to call any witnesses.

"Your honor, the defense also rests," Welch said Monday, after the jury returned from a long lunch break.

Closing arguments are set for Monday afternoon, and the jury will then deliberate.