Two men have been arrested and charged with assaulting Brian Sicknick, the police officer who died after Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol on 6 January in support of the former president’s attempt to overturn election defeat by Joe Biden.
Julian Elie Khater, 32, of Pennsylvania and George Pierre Tanios, 39, from West Virginia, were arrested by the FBI on Sunday and expected to appear in federal court on Monday.
They were charged with assaulting Sicknick with a “toxic spray”, thought to be bear spray, which Khater was allegedly seen discharging into the officer’s face in footage of the riot. It is not yet known if it caused Sicknick’s death.
Sicknick, 42, was one of five people to die as a direct result of the assault, which Donald Trump incited when he told supporters to “fight like hell” in his cause. The officer died in hospital on 7 January. A police statement said he “was injured while physically engaging with protesters” and “returned to his division office and collapsed”.
His body lay in state at the Capitol. The cause of his death is still not known. Initial statements that he suffered blunt force trauma after being hit with a fire extinguisher were walked back. Investigators now believe Sicknick may have ingested a chemical substance, possibly bear spray, that may have played a role in his death.
Court papers stated: “Officers Sicknick, Edwards and Chapman suffered injuries as a result of being sprayed in the face with an unknown substance by Khater. The officers were temporary blinded by the substance, were temporary disabled from performing their duties and needed medical attention and assistance from fellow officers.”
In social media footage, Khater is seen spraying Sicknick and others with a spray he refers to as “bear shit”, according to the court papers. The spray has not been directly linked to Sicknick’s death.
The papers state that Khater is seen making his way towards Tanios, then says, “Give me that bear shit,” and reaches into Tanios’s backpack. According to the papers, Tanios says: “Hold on, hold on, not yet, not yet … it’s still early.”
The papers state: “Khater is then seen emphatically telling Tanios, ‘They just fucking sprayed me,’ and Khater is seen holding a white can with a black top that appears to be a can of chemical spray.”
The court papers claim the exchange shows the two men were “working in concert and had a plan to use the toxic spray against law enforcement”.
According to the Be Bear Aware Campaign, humans exposed to the pepper-based spray, meant to be used against dangerous bears, can experience “chest pain, cold sweat, or shallow breathing” while “asthma sufferers may experience acute stress”.
The US justice department opened a federal murder investigation into Sicknick’s death, but prosecutors are still reportedly evaluating what charges may be brought. The medical examiner’s report is incomplete and Capitol police have said they are awaiting toxicology results.
More than 300 people have been arrested over the Capitol riot. Trump was impeached for inciting the insurrection – and acquitted when only seven Republican senators decided he was guilty.
Cory Booker, a Democratic senator from New Jersey, paid tribute to Sicknick in remarks on the Senate floor in January, calling his death a “crime” that “demands the full attention of federal law enforcement.”.
“When white supremacists attacked our nation’s capital,” Booker said, “they took the life of one of our officers. They spilled his blood, they took a son away from his parents. They took a sibling away from their brothers.”
Booker also called Sicknick “a Jersey guy through and through”.
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