Police officer Brian Sicknick suffered strokes and passed away of natural causes a day after he came to grips with a riotous mob of previous President Donald Trump’s advocates throughout the Jan. 6 intrusion of the U.S. Capitol, Washington’s primary medical inspector stated Monday.
The finding might make it tough, if not difficult, to bring murder charges in Sicknick’s death. Two males were apprehended last month and charged with attacking the officer with a chemical spray.
Sicknick, 42, was “sprayed with a chemical substance outside the U.S. Capitol” throughout the intrusion at about 2: 20 p.m., the workplace of Chief Medical Examiner Francisco Diaz kept in mind in the judgment.
At around 10 p.m. that night, Sicknick collapsed at the Capitol and was transferred to a healthcare facility, Diaz’s workplace identified. He passed away there at 9: 30 p.m. the following night.
Sicknick’s main cause of death was “acute brainstem and cerebellar infarcts due to acute basilar artery thrombosis,” according to the medical inspector’s workplace.
The officer’s way of death — the situations surrounding his death — was identified to be “natural,” the workplace stated. That term is utilized when a death is triggered exclusively by an illness and is not quickened by an injury.
But Diaz in an interview with The Washington Post kept in mind Sicknick’s function in facing the rioters hours prior to his collapse, stating, “all that transpired played a role in his condition.”
Still, Diaz informed the paper that Sicknick’s autopsy discovered no proof that the officer had an allergy to the chemical irritants sprayed at him throughout the riot.
The Capitol Police stated in a news release on the day of Sicknick’s death that he “passed away due to injuries sustained while on-duty.”
In a declaration Monday night to NBC News, the USCP stated it accepts the findings from Diaz’s workplace, “but this does not change the fact Officer Brian Sicknick died in the line of duty, courageously defending Congress and the Capitol.”
“The department continues to mourn the loss of our beloved colleague. The attack on our officers, including Brian, was an attack on our democracy,” the USCP stated. It included that police “will continue to ensure those responsible for the assault against officers are held accountable.”
The medical inspector’s judgment on Sicknick’s death was considered as the figuring out consider whether murder charges might be generated the case of Julian Khater and George Tanios.
The 2 males are implicated of attacking Sicknick and other officers with a compound comparable to bear spray. They are not presently charged with killing Sicknick.
Michael Sherwin, the federal district attorney who was leading the examination of the attack on the Capitol, informed CBS News’ “60 Minutes” in March that he thought of murder charges would be brought if the medical inspector ruled that the spray contributed in Sicknick’s death.
“If evidence directly relates that chemical to his death, yeah. We have causation, we have a link. Yes. In that scenario, correct, that’s a murder case,” Sherwin informed CBS.
