Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards, who suffered a traumatic brain injury after rioters knocked her to the ground, described in detail what she called a "an absolute war zone" as officers struggled to hold the line.

"I can just remember my -- my breath catching in my throat, because I -- what I saw was just -- a war scene," she said. "It was something like I had seen out of the movies.

"I couldn’t believe my eyes. There were officers on the ground. You know, they were bleeding. They were throwing ... I saw friends with blood all over their faces. I was slipping in people's blood," she continued.

"I was catching people as they fell ... It was carnage. It was chaos. I can't even describe what I saw," she added. "Never in my wildest dreams did I think as as a police officer, as a law enforcement officer, I would find myself in the middle of a battle."

The committee aired a video showing the moment Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards was knocked out as she tried to hold the line from a crowd of rioters pushing up against barricades and bike racks.

Edwards winced as the video began.

"I felt the bike rack come on top of my head and I was pushed backwards, and my foot caught the stair behind me, and my chin hit the handrail," she said. "At that point I blacked out but the back of my head clipped the concrete stairs behind me."

Edwards returned to duty after regaining consciousness, saying "adrenaline kicked in" as she went to the West Front of the Capitol to protect the Senate steps. There she helped people who had gotten pepper sprayed and others injured before she was hit herself with pepper spray and tear gas.

Documentarian Nick Quested, who followed the Proud Boys through Washington as members of the extremist group marched on the Capitol and clashed with law enforcement, noted in his testimony that the group headed to the Capitol long before Trump spoke on the Ellipse.

"The was a large contingent, more than I would expect, and I was confused to a certain extent while we were walking away from the president's speech, because that's when I felt we were there to cover," Quested said.

Chairman Bennie Thompson emphasized that point to argue the Jan. 6 attack was not purely spontaneous but a "coordinated plan" and the "culmination of a months-long effort spearheaded by President Trump."

"They were not there for President Trump's speech," Thompson said of the hundreds of Proud Boys who descended on Washington. "We know this because they left that area to march toward the Capitol before the speech began."

Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards told lawmakers that her patriotism was called into question as she pushed back against rioters, sustaining a serious head injury in the process.

"I was called Nancy Pelosi's dog, called incompetent, called a hero and a villain," Edwards testified. "I was called a traitor to my country, my oath and my Constitution. In actuality, I was none of those things."

She continued, "I was an American standing face to face with other Americans asking myself how many times -- many, many times -- how we had gotten here."

Edwards recounted her own grandfather's experience fighting in the Korean war, telling lawmakers she will "gladly sacrifice everything to make sure that the America my grandfather defended is here for many years to come."

Demonstrators gathered outside the U.S. Capitol on Thursday ahead of the House select committee's first prime-time hearing of its Jan. 6 investigation.

Participants held signs reading, "Not above the law."

The panel is looking to explain what it calls a "coordinated, multi-step effort" by Trump and his supporters to overturn his 2020 election loss.