It had never been seen before. On Wednesday, January 6th, several Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building in Washington, DC, the seat of American democracy. Their goal was to interrupt the joint session of Congress that was meant to confirm the victory of Democratic candidate Joe Bidenin the US presidential election.
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A human toll
It was a real shock for the country. These images seem to show the extent to which the United States is in the midst of an institutional and security crisis. The human toll is heavy following this chaotic day. A total of four people died.
One woman, named Ashli Babbitt, who came all the way from Southern California for the event, was shot dead by the Capitol police. As announced by the Washington Chief of Police:
Uniformed officers of the Capitol Police confronted [the rioters] and at one point one of them used his service weapon.
Ashli Babbitt was transferred to a hospital, where she did not survive her injury. An internal investigation has been opened into this ‘tragic event.’
In the vicinity of the Capitol, three other people—a woman and two men—died ‘in a separate medical emergency.’ For the time being, nothing has been disclosed about their identities. The police also carried out 52 arrests within the Capitol compound.
But that's not all, DC Metropolitan Chief of Police Robert Contee said law enforcement officials ‘found two homemade bombs, as well as a cooler containing Molotov cocktails.’
Twitter and Facebook block the outgoing president
Following this event, Twitter and Facebook decided to block Donald Trump's accounts as a way of dealing with the rising violence.
Twitter has even threatened the outgoing president with the permanent suspension of his account, which Donald Trump uses almost constantly.