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Alive: July 7 2023; Oct 26; 26 Apr/24.

Earlier version B: Sept. 2021/// The death of a United States Capitol Police officer was a pivotal element in the aftermath of the unprecedented U.S. Capitol riot of January 6, 2021. Officer Brian D. Sicknick, who had been on duty and engaged during the riot, died the next day, but it was three months later that his death was officially explained as due to "natural" causes. This was "at odds" with the original announcement of his death, made by the Capitol Police. The announcement linked the death, without details, to the violence of the day before and stated that a homicide investigation was under way. Comments, news reports, and social media immediately followed suit with a level of "mixed accuracy" that has been interpreted by some as a "false narrative" that deliberately exaggerated the violence of the riot for political purposes.

In the belief that Sicknick had "suffered fatal injuries while defending the U.S. Capitol against a pro-Trump mob", he would receive "special honors" for his "ultimate sacrifice". On February 2, 2021, he became the fifth private citizen to be so honored, at the Capitol, with "a sacred tribute that's typically reserved for dead American political leaders." While Officer Sicknick's ashes lay in the Capitol rotunda, the U.S. House of Representatives were invoking Sicknick's "killing" in its impeachment proceedings against President Trump.

At the same time, uncertainties about the cause of his death were beginning to be reported. Potential homicide charges were eventually rendered unlikely in light of the medical examiner's official statements in mid-April that Sicknick had died of a stroke. The autopsy report, with the medical examiner's findings from before the cremation of the body, has not been released to the public.

A native of South River, New Jersey, Sicknick served in the New Jersey Air National Guard from 1997 through 2003. He was deployed to Operation Southern Watch in 1999 and Operation Enduring Freedom in 2003. Sicknick later moved to Springfield, Virginia, and joined the Capitol Police in 2008.

Death
Sicknick was a member of the Capitol Police's First Responder Unit. On Wednesday, January 6, 2021, the day that political protests in Washington D.C. turned into the violent breach of the U.S. Capitol building, he was on duty outside at the Capitol's west side, specifically the lower west terrace, on the front line facing protesters. As tensions increased, both police and some of the rioters deployed spray irritants. Sicknick was sprayed at about 2 p.m.

At some time that night, Sicknick text-messaged his brother, saying that he had been twice attacked with pepper spray and was "in good shape". Sicknick collapsed, however, shortly before 10 p.m., after he had returned to his division office inside the Capitol, and he was taken to a hospital in the D.C. area. As his condition deteriorated, rumors had begun to circulate of an officer's death, and on Thursday afternoon the department issued a statement rebutting such reports. Sicknick died before family members had arrived at the hospital.

Shortly after his passing, the Capitol Police announced Sicknick's death in a press release which included the following:

At approximately 9:30 p.m. this evening (January 7, 2021), United States Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick passed away due to injuries sustained while on-duty. Officer Sicknick was responding to the riots on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol and was injured while physically engaging with protesters. He returned to his division office and collapsed. He was taken to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. The death of Officer Sicknick will be investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department’s Homicide Branch, the USCP, and our federal partners.

On Friday, January 8, an article in ProPublica explained that the family had been informed, at some point, that Sicknick had been treated for a stroke caused by a blood clot, and had been surviving on a ventilator but "family members did not have details of his injuries." The article added, "The Sicknick family issued its own press release Friday, urging the public and reporters to not politicize Sicknick’s death" and near the end included the following:

In a press release Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, said, “The violent and deadly act of insurrection targeting the Capitol, our temple of American Democracy, and its workers was a profound tragedy and stain on our nation's history. I send our deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of Officer Brian Sicknick,” Pelosi said. “The perpetrators of Officer Sicknick’s death must be brought to justice.”

Also on Friday, the homicide investigation was already being described as a "murder" investigation.

Official report
On April 19, 2021, over three months after the autopsy and two months after burial of Sicknick's ashes, the chief medical examiner of the District of Columbia, Francisco J. Diaz, reported his conclusions, that the manner of death was "natural" and that Sicknick died of two strokes at the base of the brain stem caused by an artery clot, technically "acute brainstem and cerebellar infarcts due to acute basilar artery thrombosis". Diaz affirmed that the death was not "hastened by an injury", and according to the Wall Street Journal,

"Diaz told the Washington Post that the autopsy had found no evidence that Mr. Sicknick suffered an allergic reaction to the chemical spray or evidence of internal or external injuries, but said “all that transpired played a role in his condition.”" The medical examiner's determination makes any murder charges unlikely.

State honors


On January 8, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ordered flags at the Capitol to be lowered to half-staff in honor of Sicknick's sacrifice during the "insurrection". Vice President Mike Pence called Sicknick's family to offer his condolences, and a deputy press secretary for the Trump administration issued a written statement. The following weekend, President Trump ordered flags to be flown at half-staff at all federal buildings, grounds, and vessels from January 10 through 13. The governors of New Jersey and Virginia also ordered flags to be flown at half-staff in their respective states on January 11.

On January 11, the Army Secretary announced that requests for "special honors and burial" had been received and would be honored for his "ultimate sacrifice" and having "suffered fatal injuries while defending the U.S. Capitol against a pro-Trump mob".

On January 29, Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that Sicknick would lie in honor at the Capitol rotunda. Officer Sicknick would be the fifth private citizen to be honored with "a sacred tribute that's typically reserved for dead American political leaders."

The arrival ceremony began on the evening of February 2 at the Capitol's east front, followed by a viewing period attended by President Joe Biden, who had taken office on January 20 after the end of President Trump's term, and First Lady Jill Biden. Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff paid their respects on February 3, along with several legislators and police officers. Later that day, Sicknick's cremated remains departed the Capitol for Arlington National Cemetery, where a burial with full honors took place.

On February 25, Yogananda Pittman, who became acting chief of the Capitol Police after the storming, told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch that Sicknick had died in the line of duty.

Other memorials
On January 12, a memorial service was held in Sicknick's hometown of South River, New Jersey. His family, New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez, and local officials were in attendance. Menendez presented to Sicknick's family the flag that had flown over the Capitol in his honor. Sicknick's high school, East Brunswick Technical High School, announced plans to plant an oak tree on campus in his honor. On February 8, members of Sicknick's family attended Super Bowl LV as honored guests of the National Football League, along with three officers of the Metropolitan Police Department.

Political events and context
>>> Pro-Trump protests

>>> Riot at the Capitol

>>> Capitol police under scrutiny; firings and replacements;

>>> Two officer's commit suicides, families seek 'line-of-duty' honors.

>>> House investigation

>>> 2nd impeachment of Trump

Media "confusion" vs. media "narrative"
By the middle of February, and even more so after the middle of April, 2021, following the medical examiner's official report, the "narrative" about Officer Sicknick's death became a topic of discussion and the new facts began to "call into question" earlier assertions about the circumstances of Officer Sicknick's death and its purported "manipulation" "to exaggerate the violence on Jan. 6" for political purposes.

"Sicknick’s death has been a source of confusion and sometimes controversy, as illustrated by the evolution of reports about it."

'Murdered by a mob'
January. The first apparent 'victim of the mob' was an unnamed woman "fatally shot inside the Capitol after the mob breached the building." Her name, Ashli Babbitt, and her identity as a protestor, had already been reported, however, along with being "shot and killed during the rioting" without further explanation. Sicknick's death a day later was a second "shock" that became inseparable from the political consequences of the Capitol riot. On January 8, the 'facts' were established, that according to anonymous law enforcement officials, "pro-Trump rioters struck [Sicknick] in the head with a fire extinguisher". This is what happened according to both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and both reported that Sicknick was "struck" and injured when rioters "attacked" the Capitol building, which The Times called "that citadel of democracy". Also the same day, Sicknick's death was dramatically described by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy as a “needless murder at the hands of a mob”. The original New York Times story included a vivid, and false, description of Sicknick's purported injuries: "With a bloody gash in his head, Mr. Sicknick was rushed to the hospital and placed on life support."

The next day, a CNN headline declared that Sicknick "died when mob stormed the Capitol". The Associated Press reported that "thousands" of "demonstrators . . . [a]rmed with metal pipes, pepper spray and other weapons...pushed past" the police, and that publicized video shows an officer (not identifiably Officer Sicknick, in an unspecified location) being hit by a fire extinguisher. February. On February 2, as Officer Sicknick's remains lay in the Capitol Rotunda, the U.S. House of Representatives filed Articles of Impeachment against President Trump for inciting a "deadly act of insurrection", including a charge of liability, along with numerous police officer injuries, for Sicknick's "killing" by "insurrectionists" with a "fire extinguisher". With Sicknick's autopsy report not publicly reported, the Articles explicitly referenced the New York Times article of January 8 by Marc Santora, "Capitol Police Officer Dies from Injuries in Pro-Trump Rampage".

On the same day, CNN reported that the investigation was "struggling" to build a case of murder. Sicknick's "fatal injuries" were being reported as definitely not from "blunt force trauma", but probably from "spray" of some kind. On February 11, The New York Times reported that "police sources and investigators are at odds" over whether Sicknick had been hit with an extinguisher, and CNN reaffirmed another unnamed official's theory that "bear spray" was the possible cause of "a fatal reaction". The New York Times amended their story from January 8 — the story that had been referenced in the Articles of Impeachment —  including the following: "UPDATE: New information has emerged regarding the death of the Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick that questions the initial cause of his death provided by officials close to the Capitol Police". Conservative commentators observed that this should have been called a "correction".

Soon after, Associated Press coverage reported that Congress was investigating "police failures that allowed thousands...to storm the Capitol" during the "deadly Jan. 6 insurrection", even as testimony revealed only about 800 actually entered the building, and "at least 3 dozen" of them had weapons of any kind.

By February 27, the "new theory" of how Sicknick was "killed" was being considered and was awaiting completion of the medical examiner's report. The Associated Press reported that "two people familiar with the matter" informed them that investigators had originally believed that Sicknick's head was struck by an extinguisher due to statements collected early in the investigation. And now there was a suspect (earlier reported by the New York Times) captured on video (earlier reported by CNN):

The FBI has obtained video that shows the person spraying Brian Sicknick and other law enforcement officers during the Jan. 6 riot, the people said. But they cautioned that federal agents haven’t yet identified the suspect by name and the act hasn’t been directly tied to Sicknick’s death. The idea that Sicknick died after being sprayed by a chemical irritant has emerged in recent weeks as a new theory in the case. March. A liberal Delaware Public Media analysis on March 19 argued that conservatives had been engaged in attempts to "downplay the violence" at the Capitol. The liberal analysis responded to this "popular narrative" among conservatives by arguing that the rioters were truly "armed" for the purpose of "insurrection": "[F]ederal charges against the alleged rioters shows that they did come armed, and with a variety of weapons: stun guns, pepper spray, baseball bats and flagpoles wielded as clubs", all of them "potentially lethal weapons". The analysis acknowledged, however, that major changes in the 'facts' suggested that Sicknick's 'killing' was indeed a "myth":

"Early news reports appear to have gotten this wrong. Some officers were attacked with fire extinguishers, but Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick was actually attacked with an unidentified chemical spray, per court documents...even though Sicknick does not appear to have been attacked with a fire extinguisher, other defendants allegedly did use fire extinguishers as weapons. Matthew Miller is accused of discharging a fire extinguisher on the steps leading to an entrance to the Capitol building. And Robert Sanford allegedly struck three U.S. Capitol police officers in the head with a fire extinguisher."

As of March 24, 2021, the New York Times abandoned the 'fire extinguisher' and replaced it with 'pepper-spray' as the likely weapon for potential murder charges.

"Five people died..."
Another recurrent theme from the beginning was that "[f]ive people died...including a Capitol officer." "Sicknick was the fifth person to die because of the Capitol protest violence" or he was "one of five people to die in the attack on the U.S. Capitol building". While covering Congressional hearings, the Associated Press repeatedly affirmed the point. Among the tens of thousands who attended the Washington protests, three of the 'victims' during the day reportedly had personal "medical emergencies" while outside on the Capitol grounds: "Benjamin Philips, 50 years old, from Pennsylvania; Kevin Greeson, 55, of Alabama; and Rosanne Boyland, 34, of Georgia." The other 'one of the five'—the only person who was actually killed that day—was Ashli Babbitt, an unarmed protester who was inside the Capitol when shot by an officer whose identity has not been released. An early Washington Post story, correctly reporting that "a woman was fatally shot", linked her death only to the actions of "the mob".

After the official medical results
"On April 19, more than two months after Mr. Sicknick’s remains lay in honor in the Capitol Rotunda, the Chief Medical Examiner in Washington, D.C. told the Washington Post that the autopsy had found no evidence that Mr. Sicknick had an allergic reaction to the chemical spray or had any internal or external injuries, but said “all that transpired played a role in his condition.” The autopsy has not been released and no date was reported of when in January it had been completed. The Wall Street Journal wondered why it took so long for the autopsy report to come out.

>>> The report covered all five deaths...

A report from CNN cast doubt on the medical examiner's findings, quoting Dr. Cyril Wecht, a forensic pathologist without specific knowledge of Sicknick's medical details, who claimed to be "shocked, amazed" by media accounts of the findings. Wecht argued that "contributing factors" can sometimes be enough to classify a cause of death as accidental or undetermined or even homicide because sometimes stress and trauma can lead to a stroke.

After the ruling, the Capitol Police issued a statement saying that the ruling "does not change the fact Officer Brian Sicknick died in the line of duty, courageously defending Congress and the Capitol."

Murder investigation
On February 10, CNN also reported that "several people" had been charged for assaults on other officers, but the FBI was still "struggling" to build a murder case and shorten its list of suspects in relation to Sicknick's "fatal injuries" from "spray". On February 26, the FBI reportedly identified one suspect of focus, the Capitol police were waiting for a toxicology report to complete the medical examiner's analysis, and Sicknick's family were reportedly concerned about "misinformation" regarding the cause of death. In testimony to a Senate committee on March 2, 2021, FBI Director Christopher Wray said that the FBI would not release information on Sicknick's cause of death while the investigation was ongoing.

Evidence of assault
By late March, some video footage of significant moments of Officer Sicknick's interactions with protesters at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, were made public. According to the FBI, at 2:14 p.m., two men, Khater and Tanios, then standing in the crowd close to the police line, had a discussion, part of which was captured in another video recording. Khater tells Tanios, "Give me that bear shit" and then appeared to get something from Tanio's backback. Tanios told to wait, saying "Hold on, hold on, not yet, not yet ... it's still early." Khater responded, "They just fucking sprayed me."

At 2:23 p.m., protesters attempted to breach the police line (formed by barricades of bicycle racks). A police lieutenant sprayed the crowd with a chemical substance, and someone rushed forward to attack a Metropolitan Police officer. At that moment, Khater raised his arm above the crowd and sprayed a chemical substance toward Sicknick&mdash;a moment captured by Metropolitan Police Department body camera footage, which also shows the police officers stumbling back, shielding their eyes, and calling out in pain. Still photographs show that Sicknick retreated, bent over, and used water to wash out his face.

Within five minutes of the attack on Sicknick and the other officers, rioters breached the police line and seized control of the west side of the building.

Charges
On March 14, Khater, of State College, Pennsylvania, and Tanios, of Morgantown, West Virginia, were arrested and charged with nine federal counts associated with the riot, including assaulting Sicknick and two other officers (one Capitol Police officer and one Metropolitan Police officer) with a deadly weapon. The two men were also charged with civil disorder, obstructing a congressional proceeding, and conspiring to injure an officer. A federal magistrate judge ordered Tanios to be detained pending trial. Khater and Tanios were not charged with murder, although the investigation is continuing.

Officer Sicknick: early life and career
Sicknick was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, to Gladys and Charles Sicknick. He grew up in South River, New Jersey, as the youngest of three sons. He attended the Calico Cat Preschool of the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in South River from 1981 to 1983. Sicknick attended East Brunswick Technical High School to study electronics but later aspired to become a police officer. He graduated from the high school in 1997.

After struggling to find a job as a police officer, Sicknick joined the New Jersey Air National Guard in 1997, toward that end. He served on the 108th Wing at Joint Base McGuire–Dix–Lakehurst, as a fire team member and leader with the security force squadron. In 1998, he wrote a letter to Home News Tribune, his local newspaper, expressing his skepticism towards America's soft stance against Saddam Hussein.

He was deployed to Saudi Arabia to support Operation Southern Watch in 1999, and to Kyrgyzstan to support Operation Enduring Freedom in 2003. Sicknick later criticized U.S. motivations for the War in Afghanistan and the government's strategy in the Iraq War. In 2003, he wrote again to Home News Tribune, noting a decline in morale among troops. He was honorably discharged in the same year as a staff sergeant.

Sicknick also worked as a school custodian in Cranbury, New Jersey. He later moved to Springfield, Virginia, and joined the United States Capitol Police in July 2008. One of his first assignments occurred during the first inauguration of Barack Obama. On December 31, 2013, he earned a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice degree from the University of Phoenix. Sicknick was an outspoken supporter of Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election, but those who had met him "said his political views did not align neatly with one political party": he opposed Trump's impeachment, supported gun control, opposed animal cruelty and was concerned about the national debt. He was remembered for comforting Caroline Behringer, a staffer for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as she returned to work at the Capitol following Trump's victory.