Officials say they still don't know why Officer Brian Sicknick died following Capitol riot
By: Susan Katz Keating (Just The News)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
More than a month after the siege on the U.S. Capitol, the Washington, D.C. medical examiner's office says it does not know when it will reveal why Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died after responding to the Jan. 6 melee.
"The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will release the cause and manner of death when this information is available," spokesperson Cheryle Adams said in an email to Just the News.
"OCME medical examiners comply with the National Association of Medical Examiners' standard to determine the cause and manner of death within 90 days; however, for cases that are more complex it could be longer," Adams said.
A longtime officer with Capitol Police, Sicknick died on Jan. 7, one day after the riot. Official explanations about what killed him have evolved and softened, leaving questions surrounding his death and the reason it remains unresolved. Unofficial speculation in media reports has included a head injury, chemical poisoning via bear spray, and a pre-existing medical condition that led to a stroke.
Sicknick "passed away due to injuries sustained while on-duty," officials initially said, explaining that he "was injured while physically engaging with protesters" during the Jan. 6 riot.
"He returned to his division office and collapsed," Capitol Police wrote in a Jan. 7 statement. "He was taken to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries." Sicknick's death would be investigated by homicide detectives, officials noted.
According to early media reports based on unnamed sources, Sicknick died in a particularly gruesome manner, after being clubbed in the head with a fire extinguisher.
Professional and amateur sleuths scoured social media and other sources to uncover the alleged killer — and in the process, found a video posted to YouTube that appears to bolster the notion that someone threw a fire extinguisher at police. The video depicts a man apparently hurling a metal cylinder Jan. 6 at a group of officers on the Capitol's Lower West Terrace.
"The object appears to strike one officer, who was wearing a helmet, in the head," an FBI Special Agent wrote Jan. 13 in a statement of facts. "The object then ricochets and strikes another officer, who was not wearing a helmet, in the head. The object then ricochets a third time and strikes a third officer, wearing a helmet, in the head. Immediately after throwing the object, the Subject moves quickly in the opposite direction."
According to the FBI agent, Capitol Police Officer William Young later identified himself as among those who were hit.
"While Officer Young was on duty and attempting to control the crowd, he felt a hard strike to the back of his helmet," the agent wrote. "When he turned to see where the blow had originated, Officer Young saw a fire extinguisher on the ground but could not determine who had struck him. Officer Young was subsequently evaluated at a hospital and cleared to return to duty."
According to court documents, the FBI claimed that the assailant was Pennsylvania resident Robert Sanford. In charging documents, Sanford was accused of assault, disorderly conduct, and other alleged crimes — but not murder, leaving unresolved what happened to Brian Sicknick.
This week, the Capitol Police department seemed to soften its language when describing the deaths of its officers.
"The events of January 6 were tragic and heartbreaking," the department said in a Wednesday statement. "Two of our own died and others were subjected to inexcusable violence during the attack."
Police made those comments as part of a larger statement, after the police union said it would vote no confidence in certain department officials, including acting Chief Yogananda Pittman.
In the statement, police did not address whether homicide investigators still are investigating whether Sicknick were murdered.
Capitol Police did not respond to a query from Just the News.
The Medical Examiner's office confirmed that there is no expected date for an autopsy report. "Therefore, when this information is available and the decedent's next of kin has been notified, I will provide you with the cause and manner of death," Adams wrote in an email to Just the News.
Police officers and national officials honored Sicknick in a Feb. 3 ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda.
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"According to early media reports based on unnamed sources, Sicknick died in a particularly gruesome manner, after being clubbed in the head with a fire extinguisher."
Oh yes, the msm got their narrative out there via those unnamed sources!
"OCME medical examiners comply with the National Association of Medical Examiners' standard to determine the cause and manner of death within 90 days; however, for cases that are more complex it could be longer," Adams said."
Maybe it's not so complex. Maybe, like everything else in DC, the OCME is politicized as well.
Trump and his supporters are off topic
I am off topic
Over 100 police were injured by Trump's insurgency.
There is no denying the culpability of Trump or his supporters regarding the violent attempt to stop the counting of the electoral votes on January 6th.
Trump organized the event, whipped the crowd into a violent frenzy and then cheered them on. He refused requests to call in reinforcements. Pence, to his credit, made the call to get the needed forces to push the insurgents back so that Congress could finally reconvene to complete their constitutional dutys in the middle of the night. Trump and his supporters tried and failed to overthrow the will of the American people. To stop Congress from doing their Constitutionally mandated duties. How can you minimize the harm in that? Our sacred Republic almost fell to a violent mob called, organized, financed an unleashed by Donald J Trump the disgraced twice impeached former President. Long will his name and memory be a national disgrace!
the people responsible for killing the police officer are off topic? bwah ha ha, you can't make this shit up.
I know white people all look alike!
nah, just old pastie white relics that still wear maga hats and can't seem to decide which other flag, but the american flag, they should be flying. those smelly old jello eaters.
Didn’t stop the house Impeachment managers from falsely claiming he’d been beaten to death by a fire extinguisher.
That elevated the story. They needed that for the narrative, which went out immediately - that officer Sicknick was beaten to death with a fire extinguisher.
No matter what comes out now, that has been etched in the minds of the American public.
No matter what comes out now, that has been etched in the minds of the American public.
It's a great tool they've mastered. "Hands Up, Don't shoot" was a perfect example of their ability to gaslight the public into rioting violently. And the narrative that Sicknick was beaten to death was immediately pushed by the media and exploited by their left wing allies. The initial story is what people low information people remember, and dishonest progressives will keep pushing it even after the narrative is proven false.
We've seen it before, we'll see it again.
I expected no less, because they're parrots of the MSM and vice versa.