The Capitol Police officer who died from injuries sustained* during the riots on Jan. 6 will lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda beginning Tuesday.
Officer Brian D. Sicknick, 42, who joined the force in 2008 and was a member of the First Responder’s Unit, was “injured while physically engaging with protesters” during the breach of the Capitol, according to a statement from the Capitol Police, and later succumbed to his injuries.
At least 140 officers from both the Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police forces were injured during the riots, including severe injuries such as cracked ribs, smashed spinal discs, and a lost eye.
Howard Liebengood of the Capitol Police and Jeffrey Smith of the Metropolitan Police died by suicide in the wake of the riots.
Sicknick’s flag-draped casket will arrive at the Capitol at approximately 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday, whereupon his former colleagues in the Capitol Police will be allowed to pay their respects. Members of Congress will be permitted to do so beginning Wednesday morning. A ceremony will commence at approximately 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, after which Sicknick, an Air National Guard veteran, will be laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery.
Sicknick’s ceremony will be reminiscent of the Capitol Police officers who laid in honor in 1998, after having died in the line of duty when a gunman entered the Capitol and opened fire.
Sicknick was a vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump, but he went out of his way to remain friendly with coworkers who disagreed with him politically.
As The Daily Wire reported:
Caroline Behringer, a former staffer who worked for Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), said Sicknick was a Trump supporter who traded political barbs with her and embraced her the day after President Trump won the 2016 election.
“As the 2016 election neared, Behringer said she and Sicknick, a supporter of the then-candidate Donald Trump, traded barbs and joked whether he would prevail over the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton,” reported USA Today.
“We would kind of trade jabs about who was going to win and kind of make fun of each other for our sides being in the lead,” the former Pelosi staffer recalled.
“The day after the election, Nov. 9, 2016, Behringer recalled being devastated by the outcome and struggling to face the day as she approached the Capitol Building,” the report said. “As she walked up, the doors had been thrown open by two other officers, a request made by Sicknick when he saw her approaching.”
“I collapsed into him in tears and I knew he was a Trump supporter – he was an outspoken Trump supporter – and he put that aside in that moment to comfort a friend and it was a small gesture of kindness, but one that has always stuck with me,” said Behringer.
*UPDATE (4/20/21): The Washington D.C. Medical Examiner has determined that Officer Brian Sicknick died of natural causes after suffering two strokes. The chief medical examiner says “all that transpired” on January 6 played “a role in his condition.” Read more here: D.C. Medical Examiner: Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick Suffered Two Strokes, Died Of Natural Causes