Capitol Police officer dies from injuries in riot

WASHINGTON — A United States Capitol Police officer died Thursday night from injuries sustained when he engaged with a pro-trump mob that descended on the U.S. Capitol the day before.

Officer Brian D. Sicknick died at about 9:30 p.m. on Thursday, the Capitol Police said in a statement. He had been with the agency since 2008.

Sicknick was responding to the riots on Wednesday and “was injured while physically engaging with protesters,” the agency’s statement said. He later collapsed after returning to his division office and was taken to the hospital.

“The entire U.S.C.P. department expresses its deepest sympathies to Officer Sicknick’s family and friends on their loss, and mourns the loss of a friend and colleague,” the statement said. News outlets had prematurely reported on his death earlier in the day while he was apparently still on life support.

Homicide investigators from the Metropolitan Police Department are involved in the case.

Sicknick’s death brings the death toll from Wednesday’s mayhem to five. One of the people participating in the pro-trump rampage was shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer inside the building. Three other people died after experiencing medical emergencies, officials said.

District of Columbia police did not release further details Thursday about the three medical emergencies deaths of Rosanne Boyland, 34, of Kennesaw, Ga., Kevin Greeson, 55, of Athens, Ala., and Benjamin Philips, 50, of Ringtown, Pa.

Relatives of two of the three said they had not gone to Washington expecting to participate or be caught up in violence. But the social media posts of one advocated that people take up arms, and posts by another showed a belief in the false allegations of election fraud spread by President Donald Trump and his allies.

Greeson’s wife, Kristi Greeson, said her husband’s only goal was to show support for Trump.

“He was not there to participate in violence or rioting, nor did he condone such actions,” she said in a statement on behalf of his family. Her husband, whoworked as a salesman in the steel and aluminum industry, “had a history of high blood pressure, and in the midst of the excitement, suffered a heart attack,” she added.

But Greeson appeared to have an account on the right-wing social media site Parler filled with recent obscene and violent posts, fueled by misinformation spread by right-wing radio host Mark Levin, the Proud Boys and others.

In a post soon after Election Day, the account said: “Obama should be put to death!”another November post from the account featured a photo of Greeson posing with a long gun in each hand and two pistols tucked into his belt.

Boyland’s family did not respond to messages seeking comment. But a Facebook page belonging to a Rosanne Boyland in Kennesaw features several pro-Trump posts and includes a false assertion that District Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, ordered hotels and other businesses to close in advance of Wednesday’s rally.

The page also voices anger over the presidential election results.

Philips, the 50-year-old from Pennsylvania, was a computer programmer and an ardent Trump supporter.

He had helped to organize transportation for dozens of people traveling from Pennsylvania to the District, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Thursday, but after arriving in the city on Wednesday, left the group.

When it was time to drive back home, people who had traveled with him said they received a call from District police informing them that Philips had suffered a stroke and died at George Washington University Hospital, the Inquirer reported.