Capitol Police Chief to Resign Over Riots

U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund has announced his resignation effective Jan. 16, a decision that came hours after Pelosi publicly called on him to step down over the department’s handling of the violent pro-Trump siege of the Capitol.

Sund confided to colleagues he felt responsible for letting down his force. The irony, colleagues said, is that Sund cut his teeth on planning major events, but his relatively modest-sized force was overwhelmed by swarms of rioters, two pipe bombs they had to defuse and clear, and an assumption that protesters would not seek to physically storm the building, the Washington Post reports.

Earlier in the day Sund suggested that while plans to protect the Capitol were in place, his department was unprepared for the intensity of the riot. “The violent attack on the U.S. Capitol was unlike any I have ever experienced in my 30 years in law enforcement here in Washington, D.C.,” he said.