OFFICER HAD STROKES FOLLOWING RIOT
Medical examiner says Sicknick died of natural causes
Officer Brian Sicknick of the U.S. Capitol Police had multiple strokes hours after sparring with a pro-Trump mob during the Jan. 6 riot and died of natural causes, Washington’s medical examiner said Monday.
The determination is likely to complicate the Justice Department’s efforts to prosecute anyone in the death of Sicknick, 42; two men have been charged with assaulting him by spraying an unknown chemical on him outside the Capitol.
But an autopsy found no evidence that Sicknick had an allergic reaction to chemicals or any internal or external injuries, the medical examiner, Dr. Francisco Diaz, told The Washington Post, which first reported his finding.
Still, Diaz added of the riot, “All that transpired played a role in his condition.” His office said that it attributes death to natural causes when it can be ascribed to disease alone and that “if death is hastened by an injury, the manner of death is not considered natural.”
Sicknick was one of five people left dead after the attack. One rioter, Ashli Babbitt, was shot to death by another Capitol Police officer. Two others died of complications from heart disease and one death was accidental, Diaz has ruled.
Sicknick died from “acute brainstem and cerebellar infarcts due to basilar artery
thrombosis,” Diaz ruled, meaning a serious stroke. The artery that supplies the brainstem — the master controller of the body’s functions like breathing and heart rate — was blocked by a clot, and the blood flow to the cerebellum at the back of the brain was blocked.
Strokes that involve the brainstem are devastating and usually fatal, said Dr. Lee Schwamm, a stroke expert at Harvard. They typically are caused by atherosclerosis in the artery that
feeds the brainstem or by a big clot that originates in the heart and lodges in that artery.
Two men were charged last month with assaulting Sicknick, but prosecutors have avoided linking the attack to his death. He was injured “as a result of being sprayed in the face” with an unidentified substance, according to court papers.
The Justice Department has accused the suspects, George Pierre Tanios, 39, of Morgantown, W.Va., and
Julian Elie Khater, 32, of State College, Pa., of working together “to assault law enforcement officers with an unknown chemical substance by spraying officers directly in the face and eyes.”
Tanios and Khater were charged with conspiracy to injure an officer, assaulting an officer with a dangerous weapon, civil disorder, obstruction of an official proceeding and other crimes related to violent conduct on the grounds of the Capitol.
About 140 police officers
were assaulted during the riot, including about 80 from the Capitol Police and about 60 from Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department, according to the Justice Department. Two other officers who tried to stop the siege later died by suicide.
More than 410 people have been arrested in at least 45 states.
In a statement released Monday, the Capitol Police force said it accepted the medical examiner’s findings but added, “This does not change the fact Officer Sicknick died in the line of duty, courageously defending Congress and the Capitol.”
Sicknick joined the department in July 2008 and most recently served in its first responder’s unit, according to the force. He was an Air National Guard veteran who served in Saudi Arabia and Kyrgyzstan.
The Capitol Police had previously said in a statement that Sicknick died from injuries suffered “while physically engaging with protesters.”
The men sprayed Sicknick and others minutes before the police line on the west side of the Capitol collapsed and rioters gained control over it, video obtained by The New York Times has shown.
Sicknick and two other police officers were injured and temporarily blinded “as a result of being sprayed in the face” with an unidentified substance by Khater and Tanios, according to the FBI.
The men were seen on video early in the afternoon of Jan. 6 standing several feet from police officers, including Sicknick, the FBI has said. In a video of the attack, Khater said “give me that” and reached into Tanios’ backpack, the FBI said. Khater said he had just been sprayed and held up a can of chemical spray.
Authorities have said that Sicknick and two other officers, who were standing near Khater, reacted to being sprayed in the face and were forced to back away.
After collapsing that night, Sicknick was rushed to the hospital, where he later died.