FBI said to have ID’d suspect in death of officer

WASHING TON» The FBI has pinpointed an assailant in its investigation into the death of Brian Sicknick, a Capitol Police officer who was injured while fending off the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol last month and later died, according to two law enforcement officials briefed on the inquiry.

The FBI opened a homicide investigation into Sicknick’s death soon after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Investigators initially struggled to determine what had happened as he fought assailants. They soon began to suspect his death was related to an irritant, such as mace or bear spray, that he had inhaled during the riot. Both officers and rioters were armed with such irritants during the attack.

In a significant breakthrough in the case, investigators have now pinpointed a person seen on video of the riot who attacked several officers with bear spray, including Sicknick, according to the officials.

And video evidence shows that the assailant discussed attacking officers with the bear spray beforehand, one of the officials said.

While investigators narrowed potential suspects seen in video footage to a single person this week, they have yet to identify the assailant by name.

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.

Given the evidence available to investigators, prosecutors could be more likely to bring charges of assaulting an officer, rather than murder, in the case.

But the death of Sicknick, a 42-year-old Air National Guard veteran who served in Saudi Arabia and Kyrgyzstan, could increase the penalties that prosecutors could seek if they took such a case to court.

In the hours after Sicknick was rushed to a hospital, officials initially said he had been struck with a fire extinguisher. They later said there was no evidence to support that he had died from blunt force trauma. More recently, FBI officials homed in on the potential role of an irritant as a primary factor in his death.