by WorldTribune Staff, November 4, 2025 Real World News
U.S. Capitol Police on Jan. 6, 2021 targeted protesters in the head, neck, face, and upper body using kinetic-impact projectiles that are designed to be shot at or below the waist, newly released video reportedly shows.
Less than 10 minutes after a large group protesters jammed in the Capitol’s West Plaza beneath the inauguration stage, Capitol Police fired the projectiles, striking 16 protesters, including nine who took shots to the top of the head, face, and base of the neck, video obtained by Blaze News shows.
/ Metropolitan Police Department
One use-of-force expert called what transpired a “potentially lethal act.”
Blaze News obtained surveillance video from the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol which captured the flight of .68-caliber yellow marking rounds and red pepper rounds from powerful FN 303 projectile launchers. Produced by FN America, the FN 303 is powered by 3,000-psi compressed air. Rounds travel at 300 feet per second. A Tippmann 98 pepper-ball rifle was also used on the crowd. Most of the rounds were fired from less than 50 feet away, video showed.
“Targeting the head with kinetic-impact projectiles is prohibited by manufacturers and industry safety standards due to the risk of fatal injuries,” the report noted. “It is considered lethal force.”
The website of FN Herstal, parent company of FN America, stresses the point, saying the company “forbids users from aiming at the head.”
A retired U.S. Army special forces operative who has used the FN 303 launcher and other less-lethal weapons in overseas missions said firing at heads from an elevated perch “will cause such rage afterward.”
“If you really want to start a riot, shoot them in the head,” he told Blaze News.
Deputy Police Chief Eric Waldow ordered Capitol Police grenadiers to open fire on the crowd at 1:06 p.m.
“I got a crowd fighting with officers, pushing, throwing projectiles,” he broadcast. “I have given warnings about chemical munitions. I need the less-than-lethal team positioned above me to identify the agitators and start deploying. Launch, launch, launch!”
The report said that while Waldo claims he gave “repeated warnings” to the crowd to disperse or face chemical munitions, the video shows he did not have a bullhorn, and no warnings could be heard on ground-level video or the Capitol Police surveillance video.
Stan Kephart, an expert witness on police use of force who reviewed the Jan. 6 surveillance video, told Blaze News that firing crowd-control weapons from an elevated platform into a dense crowd and striking targets above the shoulders is both “criminally negligent” and “potentially a lethal act.”
“There is a wealth of clear and convincing evidence here that police were not trained or equipped to move, disperse, and arrest stragglers,” Kephart said. “Instead they adopted a punishment tactic, inflaming the crowd and resulting in injury that they are responsible for.”
The bombardment of the early crowd of protesters is the latest controversy on weapons and tactics used by Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) on J6.
Minutes after the less-lethal projectile launchers were unleashed, MPD officers surged onto the West Plaza, spraying protesters with high-velocity oleoresin capsicum, commonly known as pepper spray.
After pushing protesters back and forming a police line with bicycle-rack barricades, MPD officers began lobbing dozens of suspected incendiary grenades into the crowd and firing 40mm shells containing plastic pellets, beanbags, and tear gas. Some 40 munitions were fired or lobbed into the packed crowd on the north side of the plaza over the course of an hour, video showed.
At 1:18 p.m., a Capitol Police supervisor broadcast instructions to keep firing at the crowds. “We need munitions!” he shouted to dispatch. “Unload. Unload it all! Take ’em out!”
Report: Video shows Capitol Police used lethal force against protesters early on Jan. 6 added by Editor Two on
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