‘This political climate got my brother killed’
Family recalls officer killed during insurrection at the nation’s Capitol
The grieving family members of a slain Capitol Police officer say he was a private man whose death shouldn’t be politicized.
But now, they’re forced to make sense of the reality that he’s a victim of political violence, his legacy forever linked to an insurrection in the Capitol.
“He spent his life trying to help other people,” the officer’s eldest brother said. “This political climate got my brother killed.”
Brian David Sicknick, 42, died Thursday of injuries he suffered while trying to protect the Capitol from a mob of violent rioters supporting President Donald Trump who rushed the building to disrupt the certification of the presidential election.
Before the officer’s death officially had been announced late Thursday, the Sicknick family members were rushing from their home in New Jersey to see him in a Washington-area hospital as word circulated on social media that a Capitol Police officer had succumbed to grave injuries.
Last they had heard, Sicknick was in critical condition on a ventilator, family members said.
While some news reports had said an unnamed officer was in critical condition after being bludgeoned with a fire extinguisher, family members said they didn’t have details of his injuries.
They say Sicknick had texted them Wednesday night to say that while he had been peppersprayed, he was in good spirits. The text arrived hours after a mob’s assault on the Capitol had left more than 50 officers injured and five people dead.
“He texted me last night and said, ‘I got pepper-sprayed twice,’ and he was in good shape,” said Ken Sicknick, his brother, as the family drove toward Washington. “Apparently, he collapsed in the Capitol and they resuscitated him using CPR.”
But the day after that text exchange, the family got word that Brian Sicknick had a blood clot and had had a stroke; a respirator was keeping him alive.
“We weren’t expecting it,” his brother said.
As apparently premature news of Sicknick’s death spread in law enforcement circles, the U.S. Capitol Police Department remained silent. The family learned from reporter phone calls that something was wrong.
“We have not gotten any calls,” Ken Sicknick said when first contacted.
Brian Sicknick was the youngest of three siblings, all boys.
“We’re kind of overwhelmed right now. You guys are getting reports of his death before I even got anything.”
Nearly an hour later, the department issued a statement rebutting news reports that an officer had died.
The department finally reported that Sicknick had died at 9:30 p.m. Thursday, adding this was the result of injuries suffered during the attack the previous day.
By the time family members reached the hospital, they say, Sicknick was dead.
In separate interviews with Propublica, family members say they’re still waiting to learn exactly what happened. They described Sicknick as the kindest of the three siblings.
They said he went to a technical school to study electronics but ditched it to follow his dream of becoming a police officer.
The family’s grief and confusion comes amid serious questions about how a secretive police department that is well funded and highly trained at quelling violent protests and protecting members of Congress had failed to protect one of its own from an attack that had been planned out in plain sight.
In a news release, the department said: “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.”
The Sicknick family issued its own news release Friday, urging the public and reporters to not politicize Sicknick’s death.
“Please honor Brian’s life and service and respect our privacy while we move forward in doing the same. Brian is a hero and that is what we would like people to remember,” the statement said.
Still in shock, one family member who asked not to be named said Sicknick sometimes had expressed frustrations with his job.
“Occasionally he would mention that they were very understaffed and they worked a lot of hours,” the family member said. “And morale could be low.”
Larry Schaefer, who spent 34 years on the force before retiring last year and knew Sicknick, said Wednesday’s breach of the Capitol was unfathomable until he saw it on his TV screen.
“We handle demonstrations on a regular basis,” Schaefer said. “We’re prepared for this kind of stuff. We hold people back in a perimeter. We’re set up for mass arrests, to load buses of people away.”
He said he blames department leaders for the tragedy.
Under pressure from congressional leaders, Chief Steven Sund of the Capitol Police and two other security officials have resigned.