WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — It’s been one year since a mob broke through police barricades and attacked the U.S. Capitol as lawmakers met to certify the presidential election.
Some have tried to downplay the day’s events, while others have said the deadly riot presented a real threat to this country and our democracy.
Five people died during or after the attack and approximately 140 officers suffered injuries.
On the anniversary of the insurrection, about 50 people in Williamsburg came together with candles and signs that read things like "protect our democracy" to reflect and to discuss what happens next.
"It was a very jarring day," says 23-year-old Kylee Hartman.
A group came together one year later for a "vigil for democracy."
"Will we defend our democracy?" one speaker asked the crowd. "Yes," they shouted in return.
One speaker told the crowd she will never forget that day.
"I was in my living room watching my TV as most of you were a year ago today as Americans attacked our Capitol and tried to take down our democracy."
Kylee Hartman said it’s a day she’ll never forget either. She said she watched it all play out on TV with her mom in a Newport News restaurant.
"I looked up and we all looked up and we were just sitting there at the table just like staring," she recalled. "Using the cross as a battle weapon was just disgusting to me and it still is disgusting to me."
Now, one year later, both Hartman and other speakers at the event say the best way to move forward and never let this happen again, is to listen to each other.
"I want us to go back to, I mean if we ever were, a country where people of different beliefs of different backgrounds can sit down in a room and talk to each other without screaming at each other. There’s a lot of screaming and not enough listening," said Hartman.
"We must listen to people with whom we do not agree. We must. This is what is causing a lot of the anger," Rabbi Ellen Jaffe-Gill told the crowd.
According to the Department of Justice, more than 725 accused rioters have been charged. 6
40 of them have been charged with misdemeanors and 225 are charged with more serious crimes. Federal authorities have arrested and charged 13 people in the Hampton Roads area for their involvement in the storming of the U.S. Capitol.