U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund is resigning from his post after facing widespread criticism for the way he handled a riotous mob of Donald Trump supporters inside the complex, a spokesperson for the department confirmed.
He will formally step down Jan. 16.
Sund had served as chief since June 2019 and had been with the Capitol Police force since 2017.
The most high-profile call for his resignation came from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who condemned his response a day after Wednesday’s insurrection and called on Sund to step down.
“There was a failure of leadership at the top of the Capitol Police. He hasn’t even called us since this happened,” she said, referring to Sund.
“Without a change at the top, we may see more events unfold like those we saw on January 6th,” the union chairman Gus Papathanasiou said in a statement. We cannot leave our officers and the Capitol Hill community they protect, to the mercy of further attacks amid a vacuum of leadership.”
Capitol Police, a federal law enforcement agency tasked with protecting Congress, failed to keep hundreds of rioting Trump supporters out of the Capitol, forcing lawmakers, staff and reporters to go into hiding as the mob tore through the highest chambers of government with firearms and other weapons, fueled by the president’s baseless claims that the presidential election was stolen from him.
More than 50 Capitol Police and D.C. Metropolitan Police officers were injured during the attack, with several needing to be hospitalized with “serious injuries,” Sund said Thursday. Out of hundreds of rioters, some of whom took property from the building, just over a dozen people were arrested for breaking into the building.
Lawmakers vowed to investigate the stunning breach of security, which occurred as they prepared to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory over .
