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- Capitol Police Officer James Blassingame said he wouldn't have survived the insurrection if he fired his gun.
- He compared firing his gun to "throwing kerosene" on a "four-alarm blaze."
- Blassingame spoke about the insurrection in a "PBS News Hour" interview that aired Wednesday.
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A Capitol Police officer says he didn't fire his gun at the January 6 insurrection because he feared it would have been like "throwing kerosene" on a fire.
"The only reason why I didn't do it was because the mentality was, this is a four-alarm blaze," Officer James Blassingame told "PBS News Hour" in an interview that aired Wednesday. "And if I pull my gun out and start shooting, I'm throwing kerosene on it. Maybe there's a chance I survive if I don't pull my weapon, but, if I do, I'm probably not going to make it out of here alive. You don't have enough bullets."
Blassingame, who has filed a civil lawsuit against former President Donald Trump accusing him of inciting the mob that stormed the Capitol, said that he had never been in a situation where felt he needed to use his gun until the siege.