Michael Fanone: D.C. Police Officer Who Nearly Died During The January 6 Insurrection

Michael Fanone joined the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department shortly after the 9/11 terror attacks on America. For more than 20 years, Fanone fulfilled his dream of serving the community. He worked narcotics, often going undercover to catch criminals polluting the area.

But none of those special operations over two decades created the same chaos Fanone faced on January 6, 2021, when the enemy wasn't a drug dealer or a trafficker, but instead,  a mob of red-hat-wearing, angry Trump supporters determined to overthrow what they believed to be a rigged 2020 presidential election.

Fanone wasn't yet on duty when he heard frantic calls for assistance over his radio. He could have chosen to ignore the calls and proceed with his scheduled narcotics operation. Yet, the District 1 officer and his partner grabbed their gear and self-deployed to the U.S. Capital Building. Neither officer had a duty to help, but chose to step up to protect fellow human beings when and where they were needed.

By the time Fanone and his partner arrived at the Capitol Building, all hell had broken loose. More than 2,000 people swarmed the building. 

Fists were flying, officers were bruised and bloody, outnumbered and desperately attempting to regain control. Racks and desks were overturned. Glass was shattered—screams mixed with tear gas, clogging the air with eeriness. 

The mob had forced its way past the outer barricades and breached the building. Smiles lingered on their faces; they chanted as they tore through offices.

Fanone rushed into the crowd, but quickly lost the battle.

Rioters grabbed Fanone and pulled him to the ground, and dragged him outside down the Capitol steps. They tore off his gear, including his badge and radio. They punched and kicked him with their fists and metal pipes, tased him in the neck, and sprayed him with pepper spray. The rioters threatened to kill him with his own gun. 

"I heard chanting from some in the crowd—' Get his gun!' and 'Kill him with his own gun!'-Michael Fanone.

Fanone pleaded with the rioters, telling them he had children, that he wasn't their enemy. And then he fell unconscious, having suffered a heart attack and traumatic brain injury.

Reinforcements from the Secret Service, FBI, National Guard, and other agencies were deployed and arrived around 3 p.m. in full riot control gear. They finally gained control of the chaos using crowd-dispersing tactics.

Fanone woke up in the hospital, his body battered, bruised, and sore. But he was alive. He turned on the TV and heard the same voices spewing the same hateful rhetoric on the news, many discussing the insurrection like it was just another political disagreement, like the 2,000+ people who stormed the Capitol building that day did so under legitimate political discourse.

Hearing so many downplay the violence that nearly took his life, and injured and resulted in the deaths of so many others, shattered Fanone.

Social media posts, surveillance footage, cellphone data, and tips helped investigators arrest over 1,000 people from the January 6 chaos. Charges ranged from assault on an officer to unlawful entry to conspiracy.

Daniel Rodriguez, one of the men who attacked Fanone with a stun gun, was sentenced to 12 ½ years in federal prison. Another man, Thomas Sibick, received a 50-month sentence. However, both men were released on January 20, 2025, after Donald Trump pardoned more than 1,000 people.

Fanone, a divorced father of four, returned to limited duty in September 2021. However, he retired from the police force by December 2021, saying he could not trust his colleagues to abide by the Constitution. He joined CNN as an on-air contributor and law enforcement analyst. On January 6, 2023, President Joe Biden awarded Fanone the Presidential Citizens Medal.

Before January 6, Fanone supported Donald Trump and voted for him in 2016, but reneged on his support after he fired James Comey and made comments that Fanone perceived to be anti-Asian.