2 charged with assaulting Capitol officer on Jan. 6

The men are accused of assaulting Officer Brian Sicknick, who died after the riot.

WASHINGTON – Two men have been arrested and charged with assaulting Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died after the Jan. 6 riot, but they have not been charged with killing him, according to charging documents.

Julian Elie Khater, 32, of State College, Pennsylvania, and George Pierre Tanios, 39, of Morgantown, West Virginia, were arrested Sunday and scheduled to appear in federal court Monday. They were each charged with nine counts of assaulting Sicknick, including three counts of assaulting an officer of the United States with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to injure an officer and physical violence on restricted grounds.

Khater is seen on video discharging spray from a black canister into the face of Sicknick and other officers, according to charging documents. “Give me that bear (expletive),” Khater allegedly said to Tanios before reaching into his backpack, according to a video quoted in the charging documents.

Khater is seen in the video holding a canister and waving it from side to side, about 5 to 8 feet away from three officers, including Sicknick, according to the charging document. Each of the officers reacted “to something striking them in the face,” according to the charging document.

An unidentified FBI agent swore in charging documents that Khater and Tanios were “working together to assault law enforcement officers with an unknown chemical substance by spraying officers directly in the face and eyes.”

Prosecutors filed charges after tips helped the FBI identify Khater and Tanios from wanted images posted from surveillance video and officer-worn body cam footage, the complaint said.

Khater was arrested as he disembarked from a plane at Newark International Airport in New Jersey, according to the Justice Department. Tanios was arrested at his home, the department said.

Authorities have said Sicknick died in the line of duty the day after the riot. Capitol Police said he collapsed in a district office after engaging with rioters and died the next day in a hospital. Sicknick reported to his supervisors and colleagues that he had been sprayed in the face, according to charging documents.

But the precise cause of Sicknick’s death has not yet been reported. A chemical spray has been suspected.