Disturbing new videos show Capitol Police officer who died being attacked with chemical spray during Jan. 6 riot
Footage obtained by The New York Times shows for the first time a rioter spraying Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick with chemical spray on Jan. 6. Sicknick collapsed later that day and died the next night, although Washington, D.C.'s, chief medical examiner has yet to release his autopsy and cause of death.
Two men, Julian Khater and George Tanios, have been charged with assaulting Sicknick and two other officers with bear spray — which the Times notes can be many times more powerful than pepper spray and is not meant for use on humans. The two men can be seen near the police line on the west side of the Capitol, where Sicknick was among the officers guarding the area. In one clip, Khater is heard asking Tanios to hand him "that bear s---," and appears to reach into Tanios' backpack to retrieve it.
Khater then heads back toward the police line before eventually raising his arm over other rioters and spraying something, allegedly bear spray, from a canister toward Sicknick, who reacts to it. The graphic footage can be seen below.
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Later that night, Sicknick reportedly told his brother he was in "good shape" despite getting sprayed, but his condition worsened over the next 24 hours, and he was treated for a blood clot and a stroke, his brother said. Again, it remains unclear whether the spray caused Sicknick's death, but the footage published by the Times provides a clearer picture of what happened on the ground. Read more at The New York Times.
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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.
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