COLUMBUS, Ohio — As United States citizens prepare to cast their votes for president this fall in an election that is on track to look similar to the one in 2020, one law enforcement officer who survived the attack on the U.S. Capitol wants to prevent that part of history from repeating itself.

On Jan. 6, 2021, former Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone responded to a distress call for help near the Lower West Terrace Tunnel of the Capitol when he said thousands of violent rioters stormed the building in protest of the results of the 2020 presidential election.

During the attack on the Capitol, Fanone said he was pulled off the police line by a rioter into the crowd, then surrounded, restrained and beaten to the point of unconsciousness.

Fanone visited Ohio Friday with the nonpartisan nonprofit organization Courage for America, hoping to educate people about the brutality of January 6 and hold elected officials accountable.

“In my 43 years on this earth, I’ve heard many, many politicians tell me that the upcoming election is the most important of your lifetime,” he said. “But I hope this is the only time that we have to deal with, at least in my lifetime, certainly in my children’s lifetime, democracy being on the ballot. But, I think that what happened to me sends a clear message that democracy is, in fact, on the ballot.”

Fanone retired from law enforcement in December 2021 following two decades of service. He testified in the hearings with the congressional panel that investigated the January 6 attack and earned a Congressional Gold Medal for his service that day.