The most widely distributed images of the riot at the US Capitol on Wednesday captured unprecedented and certainly shocking behaviour.

They feature ostentatious participants like the bare-chested man wearing a horned hat and face paint, who looked like he was headed to a football stadium on game day or rioters in striking poses, propping their feet up on a desk in House Speaker Nancy Pelosis office or toting Pelosis stolen lectern through the Rotunda.

In video footage aired on CNN , a buoyant young man mentions that somewhere inside the Capitol had been dubbed the weed room, as if the riot were just a rowdy house party. A number of grainy photos showed various people, some draped in Trump flags, posing on the Senate floor like it was a theme park attraction.

But as more videos and photos have emerged in the days since, its become clear that the footage that initially circulated online and in media coverage did not capture the startling degree of violence that rocked Washington, DC, this week and left five people dead. Video footage and first-person accounts helped reveal how the incident could have been even deadlier.

Youll never take back our country with weakness, President Donald Trump told his supporters, shortly before they knocked over fences and forced their way into the Capitol building. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.