In the week since a gang took siege at the Capitol, the House deposed President Donald Trump. Dozens of people have been arrested across the country for participating in the riots. Politicians and business leaders loudly condemn the violence. Twitter and other social media sites have banned Trump and thousands of other accounts.
But in the midst of all the noise, a Capitol policeman hailed as a hero for confronting the insurgents and leading them out of the Senate chambers remained silent.
Agent Eugene Goodman does not say whether he thinks he saved the Senate, as many of the millions who watched the video believe. In fact, Goodman doesn’t say anything in public – not to reporters, not on social media. And he has asked the union, bosses, family and friends of the police force to help him maintain his privacy and not publicly discuss the events of January 6.
But the video speaks volumes.
Goodman, a black man facing an overwhelmingly white crowd, is the only officer to have been seen for a full minute of the footage, taken by HuffPost reporter Igor Bobic. Standing in front of the rioters, Goodman backs up until he reaches a folding stick on the ground and picks it up. “Backup … backup!” he shouts, keeping an eye on the crowd. He turns and runs upstairs, waving the baton, as the group follows.
Goodman shouts “second floor” into his radio, then glances and takes a half step to his left at the top of the stairs. Two chairs sit on either side of an entrance to the United States Senate chamber, just steps away. Dozens of rioters are right in front of him, no other agents to be seen.
Goodman pushes one of the rioters and walks to the right, away from the room. The crowd follows, and Goodman leads them to a room where other agents are waiting.
The time on the video is 2:14 pm. The Senate has halted its proceedings to vacate the room at 2:15 PM
Five died at the riots, including one of Goodman’s fellow officers. Legislative offices were destroyed, gallows erected outside, and a video showed a woman shot while journalists, congressmen and staff hid.
Goodman’s footage spread through social media and news sites, a foil for the gory and messy scenes elsewhere in the Capitol. People called him brave, impressive, effective. They dissected the video, guessing about its strategy and decision-making.
But not all comments were friendly. Backing up and running away is lame, some said. It was a staged photo, others claimed.
Goodman has been silent. He did not respond to text messages and phone calls that The Associated Press left on possible numbers for him. The head of the Capitol Police union said only that Goodman did not want to talk to reporters. Spokeswoman Eva Malecki said Capitol Police do not conduct interviews or discuss Goodman’s actions.
Public records shed a little light on Goodman. He served in the military for more than four years as an infantryman, leaving the rank of sergeant in December 2006 after one year in Iraq. He has been with the Capitol Police since at least mid-2009.
But that’s about it. Goodman’s friends, family, buddies he would have known from the military, members of Congress, and co-workers all begged for interviews about him. They say he wants to keep his privacy.
Online and in much of the public eye, Goodman is a hero. Many people, famous and not, suggested that he deserved the Medal of Honor. A Republican and two Democrats in the US House introduced a bill on Thursday to give him the Congressional Gold Medal.
“Without Officer Goodman’s swift, decisive and heroic actions, the tragedy of last week’s uprising could have multiplied in magnitude to levels never seen before in American history,” Democratic US Representative Emanuel Cleaver II said. Missouri.
But the representatives did not respond to messages asking if they had a meeting with Goodman. In a tweet promoting the bill, they don’t show a formal photo of Goodman in uniform, but an image of him facing the crowd – eyes wide open, mask under his nose, baton behind him.
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AP news researcher Randy Herschaft contributed.
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Follow Jeffrey Collins on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JSCollinsAP.