[gallery ids="42682,42680,42681"] By Taylor Boyd and Debbie Hall Two Patrick County residents were among those attending the Jan. 6 protest in Washington D.C. “Ninety-nine percent of the people there were not among the one percent that went into the Capitol building,” said Charlie Bowman, who along with Carrie Helms were among Patrick residents to attend. The two traveled from Patrick County to Danville in the wee hours of Jan. 6, and were among the 23 to board the chartered bus to Washington, D.C. Helms said the rally was to celebrate Trump’s accomplishments while in office. “Even though it was showing that he wasn’t going to be president, I still wanted to be part of it. To me, it’s a big part of history,” said Helms, of the Woolwine community. “I wanted to be a part of something really special.” Both said they saw other protestors they believed were associated with Antifa. “I did see Antifa out there. There were some dressed in black, then there were some that were disguised that had the camouflage shorts and their caps turned around acting like they were acting like they were for President Trump,” Helms said. Bowman, of Patrick Springs, said he was in the crowd when Trump addressed the crowd. He maintains that while Trump has been accused by many of inciting a riot, that was not the case. The crowd was peaceful, he said, adding he did not see members of the media at the monument. “It was strange the news media were all at the Capitol,” Bowman said. “I talked to a lot of people at the (Washington) Monument and had pictures made. People were peaceful.” The atmosphere “seemed like a parade at times,” Helms said. “I felt safe the whole time. I was never worried.” As the crowd headed from the monument towards the Capitol, Bowman and Helms said they were cold, tired, and hungry. Bowman also wanted to see Union Station. “We had been given a heads up when we got off the bus to walk in pairs or groups. We were told to watch for pellets, or bricks or rocks on the street, but we didn’t see any of that stuff,” Bowman said. Bowman said they stopped to asked police officers for directions. “There were cops on every corner, four or five” officers on each, he said. Snipers also were visible, according to Bowman, who added that while he heard crowd estimates up to 250,000, a police officer at the scene estimated the crowd was two million people. Neither were in the area when the Capitol was stormed, rather they were in Union Station having lunch. “We were right up in all of that, but right before it happened, we decided we were going to take a break and get out of the crowd, and we were both hungry and cold and we just wanted to go sit down for a while and get something to eat. I’m glad we did,” Helms said. “What’s crazy is the whole time we down there in the crowd, everybody was having the best time. Everybody was happy, cheering, it was great. We were just having a good time, then, all of a sudden, that happened,” Helms said of what has been described as an assault on the Capitol. Five people died. “I honestly believe that it was not the Trump supporters that caused all of this,” Helms said. Bowman agreed, and both marvel that there wasn’t a bigger law enforcement presence in and around the Capitol. “Why didn’t they have more security to keep the people back,” Helms said. “Why did they let the people come flooding in?” Even with the unanswered questions and mixed emotions, “I don’t regret going,” Helms said. “I don’t.” “I didn’t go up as a Republican. I didn’t go up as a Democrat. I just went up as a person,” Bowman said. “We went up there to let people know we care about our country.”
