Capitol Police Special Agent Crystal Griner stood on crutches with a cast on her lower leg Thursday as President Donald Trump draped the Medal of Valor around her neck.
Griner took a bullet to the ankle when she responded to the barrage of gunfire aimed at the Republican members of Congress holding baseball practice at an Alexandria, Virginia, park in June.
Trump and Vice President Mike Pence honored Griner and Special Agent David Bailey of the Capitol Police and Alexandria police officers Kevin Jobe, Alexander Jensen and Nicole Battaglia for their actions that day, calling them “American heroes,” while in the East Room of the White House.
A man angry with Trump wreaked havoc on June 14 when he fired at the representatives, injuring Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., and four others. The shooter, identified as 66-year-old James T. Hodgkinson from Belleville, Illinois, was killed when officers fired back.
Scalise, who was discharged from MedStar Washington Hospital Center on Tuesday and will begin “intensive inpatient rehabilitation,” was watching Thursday, Pence said, as he opened the ceremony. The shooting propelled Trump and members of Congress to embrace unity for the first time since the divisive presidential election.
At the ceremony, Trump said a bipartisan bill in Congress would provide support for Capitol Police officers who are injured while on duty.
Trump also praised the congressmen who helped one another during the shooting, the Alexandria Fire Department, the U.S. Park Police Aviation Unit and the two doctors who have treated Scalise at the hospital.
“The assault on June 14th reminded us that evil exists in this world,” Trump said.
“But it also reminded us that heroes walk in our midst, that love triumphs over tragedy, and that our resolve is stronger than ever,” he said.
On the stage stood the three Alexandria police officers in dark uniforms and the Capitol Police officers in civilian clothing, though Griner needed to sit for much of the ceremony because of her injury.
Trump also thanked law enforcement in general “for doing the tough jobs, the dangerous jobs, and sometimes thankless job with tremendous integrity, devotion, and courage.”
