“I need to talk to my kids, I thought to myself, because I may never talk to them again,” Rep. Susan Wild told Elle.

In a viral photo taken during the violent siege on the US Capitol by a pro-Trump mob, Rep. Susan Wild can be seen laying on the ground, clutching her chest, as Rep. Jason Crow crouches over her and holds her hand, trying to comfort her.
As police began barricading the doors to the House floor, lawmakers made calls to loved ones, according to Wild’s account shared with Elle.
Wild, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, said House leadership and the lawmakers on the lower floor had evacuated, while the ones with her in the gallery, the upper level, were searching for a safe exit. Then they heard shouts of, “Get down! Get Down!”  
“That’s when people started making phone calls,” Wild told Elle.
“I need to talk to my kids, I thought to myself, because I may never talk to them again,” she said.
Wild said she called her adult children over FaceTime to tell them she was safe, but her son said: “We hear gunshots and breaking glass in the background. How can you say you’re okay?”
Members of the House and Senate were meeting for a joint session of Congress Wednesday to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s win when a mob of Trump supporters broke into the Capitol building to oppose the results of the election.
The riot resulted in five deaths, including one police officer, and dozens of arrests. It also caused the delay of the election certification, which occurred much later in the evening after the Capitol was cleared and Congress was able to reconvene.
Crow, the Colorado congressman, recounted his experience to Rolling Stone, saying he realized the danger they were in when he saw Capitol Police barricading the doors with furniture.
“I called my wife,” he told the magazine. “I told her I loved her and told the kids I loved them and told my wife I might have to fight my way out.”
During the chaos, Crow, a former Army Ranger with multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, assisted colleagues, including Wild, who told Elle he was her “personal hero that day.”
Wild said Rep. Terri Sewell of Alabama also made calls to her husband and mother to tell them she loved them.
Crow recalled to Rolling Stone that he went into “Ranger mode” as the lawmakers could hear banging on the doors, gunshots, and flash-bang grenades.
He said that scene lasted for 15 minutes before police were able to escort the remaining House members out of the chamber and to a secure location.
Congress was able to reconvene hours later after the building was cleared.
Read Wild’s and Crow’s full accounts at Elle and Rolling Stone.