‘Something big is happening’: Those from Amarillo in the nation’s capital speak out about events

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - Some from Amarillo are in the nation’s capital after experiencing first hand the protests that happened Wednesday.

From reports, videos and personal testimonies, it is clear there was violence in Washington D.C today.

Some say that violence, only made up a small portion of the millions who attended.

“You could hear like a ‘pop, pop, pop’ sound. They told everybody ‘hey get your gas mask, tear gas is being deployed in the house. We may have to evacuate, there’s going to be tear gas’. That’s when you’re like wow there’s more than one person in here. Something big is happening,” said Ronny Jackson, U.S Representative.

That’s when Jackson says his past military experience kicked in and he was in survival mode.

“People started banging on the doors, beating on the doors, trying to tear the doors down from the outside. Several of us started moving furniture and stacking furniture in front of the doors. We even went so far as to break the legs off some of the chairs and podiums to potential use as a weapon because we were just trying to figure out what can we get our hands that we can defend ourselves with,” said Jackson.

An event Jackson did not expect to happen while in congress, let alone during his first week.

“I’ve been in Iraq and Afghanistan and you expect it when you’re there but not on the floor of the house,” said Jackson.

Jackson describes how the representatives were able to escape safely.

“They opened the back side of the chamber and it was obvious that we had to take the risk of leaving and we all evacuated and got to a safer location,” said Jackson.

Violence wasn’t the only thing in the nation’s capital today.

“Today during all of the chaos, as we were headed up to the capitol, you hear chaos going on. There were large groups, circled up and praying in between the Capitol and the Supreme Court, which was just awesome,” said Chris Konnecke, from Amarillo, visiting Washington D.C.

Konnecke says a large majority of protestors were peaceful.

“There’s a very small amount. Just like in any large group, there is always that one that pushes over, over the edge and those groups that are at the Capitol right now, I don’t even know if it’s one percent of the people that are here out of the million or so people that here on the streets,” said Konnecke.

However, a WT political science professor says the events witnessed today were unlike anything seen before in history.

“Anytime when there’s been an outside force or an outside group that has come in and taken over the capitol, this is kind of unprecedented,” said Dave Rausch, Bivins professor of political science at WTAMU.

Copyright 2021 KFDA. All rights reserved.