US Capitol Police officer attacked by woman holding baseball bat

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A US Capitol police officer has been attacked by a woman holding a baseball bat, the agency has said in a statement.

The altercation took place on Friday morning around 9.30am. The woman, identified as 25-year-old Olivia Romero, was walking on First Street SW in Washington, DC carrying the bat, when she was approached by police.

When the officers moved towards the woman, she allegedly became angry and raised her bat. Police tried to remove the weapon from her, and during the struggle, she bit one of the officers, US Capitol Police said. Charges are pending.

This year has been turbulent for the officers protecting the Capitol, with more than a hundred officers being injured during the insurrection on 6 January, when a mob of Trump supporters laid siege to the congressional building in an attempt to stop the legislature from certifying President Joe Biden’s election victory.

In April, an officer was killed when a driver slammed a vehicle into a barricade outside the building.

A man was arrested in August after a standoff that lasted for hours, claiming that he had an explosive device. The man had supported former President Donald Trump and has said that “all Democrats need to step down”.

Just weeks later, Capitol Police arrested a man from California who had several knives in his vehicle. The truck had a swastika and other white supremacist symbols emblazoned on it. The man was arrested near the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee.