A Capitol Police officer reportedly bludgeoned with a fire extinguisher by a rioter during Wednesday’s assault on the U.S. Capitol has died of his injuries.
Capitol Police said in a statement late Thursday that Officer Brian D. Sicknick passed away at about 9:30 p.m. due to injuries suffered 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,” Capitol Police said. “The death of Officer Sicknick will be investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department’s Homicide Branch, the USCP, and our federal partners.”
Sicknick joined the USCP in July 2008, and most recently served in the Department’s First Responder’s Unit.
“The entire USCP Department expresses its deepest sympathies to Officer Sicknick’s family and friends on their loss, and mourns the loss of a friend and colleague,” Capitol Police said. “We ask that Officer Sicknick’s family, and other USCP officers’ and their families’ privacy be respected during this time.”
The leader of the U.S. Capitol Police Union had told local media that Sicknick, 42, was being kept on life support until his family could arrive.
Stunning >> MULTITUDE of officers line the front of the Capitol in silence, honoring fallen US Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick… Rest In Peace#breaking @WUSA9 @CBSNews pic.twitter.com/swKVbSKcQe
— Mike Valerio (@MikevWUSA) January 8, 2021
Caravana en honor al oficial Sicknick en la Constitution Avenue and 3rd Street. pic.twitter.com/7zNIfKX5y1
— Rosbelis Quiñonez (@RosbelisTv) January 8, 2021
Fifty-six officers were injured in the Wednesday riot, and several were hospitalized. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund has resigned amid fury on Capitol Hill over his department’s security posture and response to the mob of Trump supporters that breached the building and descended on the House and Senate.
People in the mob “actively attacked United States Capitol Police Officers and other uniformed law enforcement officers with metal pipes, discharged chemical irritants, and took up other weapons against our officers,” Sund said Thursday. “They were determined to enter into the Capitol Building by causing great damage.”
One woman was shot by Capitol Police as she tried to enter through a broken pane of glass toward the Speaker’s Lobby on the House side. Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) told ABC News that he witnessed the shooting of Ashli Babbitt, 35, of San Diego. “When they broke the glass in the back, the [police] lieutenant that was there, him and I already had multiple conversations prior to this, and he didn’t have a choice at that time,” Mullin said. “The mob was going to come through the door, there was a lot of members and staff that were in danger at the time.”
Sund said in a statement that “per the USCP’s policy, the USCP employee has been placed on administrative leave and their police powers have been suspended pending the outcome of a joint Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and USCP investigation.”
Three other people suffered medical emergencies that were ultimately fatal, Capitol Police said: Benjamin Phillips, 50, of Ringtown, Pa., Kevin Greeson, 55, of Athens, Ala., and Rosanne Boyland, 34, of Kennesaw, Ga. Greeson reportedly suffered a heart attack, Phillips reportedly suffered a stroke, and Boyland was reportedly crushed by the crowd.
