Two men have been charged in the death of Officer Brian Sicknick, who was killed during the infamous January 6th riots that infiltrated the United States Capitol. Federal investigators arrested George Tanios and Julian Khater on Sunday. The two men are from West Virginia and Pennsylvania and will appear in federal court Monday.
Immediately following Sicknick’s death, multiple media outlets suggested that Sicknick was “murdered” by rioters after being struck by a fire extinguisher. However, investigators now believe Sicknick may have died after being sprayed with bear spray, according to the Associated Press which also reported Sicknick’s autopsy remains “incomplete.”
Court records include video evidence of Khater spraying Sicknick and other officers with “a can of chemical spray.” The criminal complaint states, “all react, one by one, to something striking them in the face. The officers immediately retreat from the line, bring their hands to their faces and rush to find water to wash their eyes.”
A sworn affidavit from the FBI special agent on the case stated, “all three officers were incapacitated and unable to perform their duties for at least 20 minutes or longer while they recovered from the spray.” Agents declared the sprayed substance was “as strong as, if not stronger than, any version of pepper spray they had been exposed to during their training as law enforcement officers.”
Sicknick’s family has stated publicly their sadness that Brian’s death had become a political issue, and they assumed he had died of a stroke. Sicknick’s oldest brother Ken told ProPublica last month that he had received text messages from his brother the evening of the Capitol attack indicating he was okay. “He texted me last night and said, ‘I got pepper-sprayed twice’ and he was in good shape,” said Ken. “Apparently, he collapsed in the Capitol, and they resuscitated him using CPR.”
