The U.S. Capitol was thrown into violent disarray Wednesday afternoon as insurrectionists in support of President Donald Trump breached the building and sowed chaos inside.

Four people died on the Capitol grounds, including a woman fatally shot by U.S. Capitol Police and three others who died of apparent medical emergencies, according to Robert Contee, the acting chief of the Metropolitan Police Department.

D.C. residents had been warned by elected officials to stay away from the rallies scheduled during the week to protest Congress certifying Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. The Proud Boys, an extremist group of self-described “western chauvinists” with ties to white supremacy, threatened violence and destruction in the city ahead of the events. Two previous MAGA rallies held in D.C. in the wake of the 2020 election saw stabbings and other altercations.

Numerous local officials have raised concerns about a response by Capitol Police they deemed underprepared and inadequate.

Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen, who chairs the committee that oversees D.C.’s police department, called the Capitol Police response a “complete failure.”

“MPD has gone in to help support. But what we’re watching is nothing short of domestic terrorists, an attempt at a coup, and sedition,” said Allen. “I’m not sure how there wasn’t a better preparation for what we’re seeing take place.”

After lawmakers went into lockdown or were evacuated, D.C. police took the lead in clearing the Capitol building of insurrectionists, with the help of a series of local law enforcement agencies on the scene to assist. In response to the scenes of violent chaos, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser ordered a 6 p.m. curfew. (Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam also declared a 6 p.m. curfew in Arlington County and the City of Alexandria and issued a state of emergency in Virginia.)

By late Wednesday evening, D.C. police had arrested 52 people — 47 of those arrests were related to curfew violations and unlawful entry, and half of the total arrests occurred on U.S. Capitol grounds, according to Contee. He said that police began enforcing the curfew order at the Capitol and then fanned out to other parts of the city, and would continue to enforce it until it ended at 6 a.m.

Officials are releasing images of people who breached the Capitol to make sure they are “held accountable for the carnage,” Bowser said.

Law enforcement officers have also recovered weapons including two pipe bombs in downtown D.C. near the Republican National Committee headquarters and Democratic National Committee headquarters, as well as a cooler with Molotov cocktails discovered in a vehicle on the Capitol grounds.

Egged on by President Trump’s Wednesday morning speech at the Ellipse, demonstrators pushed past police towards the Capitol building earlier in the afternoon during Congress’ session to count the Electoral College’s votes. The session was halted in the middle of debate over the results in Arizona, and Capitol Police proceeded to try to lock down the building.

Police were unable to secure the building: After successfully breaking through a barricade, one group clashed with Capitol Police on the Capitol steps. Police deployed chemical irritants in an attempt to control the crowd. Inside the building, pro-Trump extremists were seen wandering in the House and Senate floors, smashing windows, and occupying offices.

Outside of the building, protesters chanted to push forward, while individuals climbed walls around the Capitol campus. Others paraded large American flags through the crowd.

A haze of smoke obscured the building as Capitol Police used what appeared to be chemical irritants and flash bangs to clear extremists from the steps and nearby scaffolding. The crowd yelled back at police, shouting, “Traitors! Traitors!”

Officers with D.C. police arrived at the scene in riot gear shortly thereafter, and law enforcement succeeded in clearing protesters entirely off the Capitol lawn shortly before 6 p.m.

The D.C. National Guard was deployed after an initial delay. The governors of Virginia and Maryland both sent in National Guard troops and state troops. Police officers from Fairfax County and Prince George’s County were also in the District to assist with the response, according to DCist/WAMU reporters on the scene. Police officers from Baltimore County were also deployed on Wednesday afternoon to help, according to County Executive Johnny Olszewski.

“We’ll be back, you fucking traitors,” one insurrectionist yelled toward authorities as they cleared the area around the Capitol.

At 7:30 p.m., nearly an hour and a half into the District-wide curfew, a crowd dozens strong remained on Pennsylvania Ave. Hundreds of law enforcement officers, some of whom appeared to be members of the National Guard and FBI, began encircling the crowd.

As law enforcement officers let people exit the kettle, one man shouted: “Fucking pig cocksuckers, we’re coming back with rifles next time.”

Multiple local officials have criticized the Capitol Police for what they saw as an initially tepid response to the riots.

“This is a complete disgrace,” Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George wrote on Twitter. “Over the summer we saw federal law enforcement use tear gas, flash bangs, and rubber bullets on Black Lives Matter protesters without provocation. Where are the riot squads now? Are they standing down as white supremacists attempt a coup?”

Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White also wrote a letter to Bowser questioning whether D.C. police were being as diligent about surveilling for potential illegal guns among right-wing protesters as they are about surveilling D.C. residents.

D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine also criticized federal law enforcement’s lack of preparedness for the day’s violence.

“The social media made it clear as far as to what was going to occur,” Racine said in an interview with PBS NewsHour, in an apparent reference to the violent threats documented on pro-Trump and far-right forums in rtecent days. Racine said the police reaction was a stark contrast to the response to protests against police killings of Black people over the summer, when federal law enforcement from multiple agencies mobilized to protect the U.S. Capitol “for no reason when there was a peaceful protest.”

At-large Councilmember Christina Henderson, who worked on the Hill for four years before her current role, wrote on Twitter that she had seen the U.S. Capitol Police “use more force with protesters in wheelchairs.”

Bowser said she observed some differences between federal agencies’ treatment of peaceful protesters at Lafayette Square, who were tear gassed, and the insurrectionists at the Capitol. “We saw a different type of vehicles used,” she said. “We saw a different posture used in some cases. We did not see, for example, deployment of those military personnel on the Capitol grounds.”

Late in the evening, the mayor extended the public emergency she declared in the District for an additional 15 days, a timespan that includes the presidential inauguration. That allows her to more easily corral resources for public safety.

She, like many local officials, has insisted that Trump be held accountable for the day’s events.

Racine, Allen, and Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie have joined a chorus of Democratic members of Congress in calling for Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Trump from office. A majority of the D.C. Council told Washington Post reporter Fenit Nirappil they would support Trump’s removal from office.

President-elect Joe Biden called for Trump to “go on national television now to fulfil his oath and defend the Constitution and demand an end to this siege” in a public address around 4 p.m. on Wednesday.

“Let me be very clear: the scenes of chaos at the Capitol do not reflect a true America, do not reflect who we are,” Biden said, calling the event a “godawful display.”

“It’s not protest — it’s insurrection,” Biden added.

Shortly after 4 p.m., Trump tweeted a recorded message that appeared to be filmed outside the White House, in which he told insurrectionists at the Capitol, “go home, we love you, you’re very special.”

Trump also told his supporters he “feel[s] their pain,” repeating his false claim that the “election was stolen from us.” Twitter later announced it was calling on Trump to remove a series of tweets, including that one, for “repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy.”

Election officials across the country have not found instances of widespread fraud. Several Republican and Democratic lawmakers, all living former defense secretaries, election officials across the country, and former U.S. Attorney General William Barr have all dismissed the conspiratorial claims of election fraud.

That didn’t stop the president’s supporters and far-right groups from descending on D.C. for the third time in recent months — prompting local leaders, business owners, and city residents to prepare for potentially violent demonstrations.

And many demonstrators who traveled to D.C. from across the country came prepared for clashes.

Coby Brown, who drove more than 10 hours from Georgia to D.C., said he came to “stop the steal” from Congress. He wore a tactical vest, walkie-talkie, and camouflage clothing. When asked if he would assault a congressman, Brown said “we’ll have to see how it goes.”

“I’m from the military, so a lot of my brothers are already at the Capitol now,” Brown said. “We’re just going to occupy the Capitol probably [un]til dark and see how it pans out.”

Dressed in full army gear, bullet-proof vest, and camouflage pants, a demonstrator from Texas who only identified himself as Rooster said if Trump does not become president, things could lead to violence “and we would have every right to be that way and do that.”

Trump supporters involved in rallying against the election results on Wednesday were still convinced they had a path forward toward victory, despite the fact that Vice President Mike Pence reiterated that he does not have the power to reject the Electoral College votes that make Joe Biden the country’s next president.

Caleb Kurianski, 39, flew from California to attend Wednesday’s protest, his face painted as an American flag.

“I’m hoping that when they vote, they consider the amount of people that are out here that feel that the election was stolen,” Kurianki said as he waited for President Trump to speak. “They feel that they’re being wronged. If we can’t trust our voting system, we have big problems here in America.”

Julia, a Northern Virginia resident who declined to share her last name because she feared retaliation for her involvement in the day’s demonstrations, said “I keep telling myself that there’s a big space between now and the 20th and a lot of things can happen and hopefully it’s going to go the way we need it to go, you know what I’m saying?”

Julia said she was concerned about the violence of the day’s events, and she would probably honor Bowser’s 6 p.m. curfew.

“I’m not a big rebel or anything, I just wanted to come here and say, ‘Hey, I’m upset about this and something should be done about it,’” she said.

But that was not the prevailing sentiment of the day. A video posted to Twitter by BuzzFeed News reporter Ellie Hall showed insurrectionists chanting “We are at war” and “We’re coming for bodies.”

Throughout the day, Trump supporters expressed their derision for journalists, calling CNN “fake news” over a loudspeaker and chanting “fuck fake news” while destroying media cameras that had been set up outside the Capitol, as documented in video and images posted to Twitter.

As the scenes from the Capitol shocked the nation, businesses and other institutions, including the public library, began closing early ahead of the city’s curfew. Metro suspended rail service at 8 p.m. and bus service at 9 p.m., and some COVID-19 testing sites across the District closed early.

Even before the curfew was enacted, multiple businesses near the rally locations closed or modified their operations — including Harry’s Bar and Hotel Harrington, popular hangouts for the Proud Boys and the site of stabbings during November’s demonstrations.

But shortly after 8 p.m. on Wednesday evening, Congress reconvened and resumed its work certifying Biden’s victory