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WASHINGTON: Your first big assignment was working on the inauguration of former President Barack Obama in 2009. Officer Brian Sicknick had just been sworn in at the United States Capitol Police Department, fulfilling a lifelong dream.
“He loved his job,” said his father, Charles Sicknick, in an interview with Reuters. “I will never get over this.”
Sicknick, 42, died Thursday night (January 7), a day after physically interacting with a crowd of supporters of President Donald Trump who stormed the United States Capitol where lawmakers had just started a vote. formal to certify the victory of Democrat Joe Biden on November 3. presidential election.
As rioters overpowered Capitol police, Sicknick was pepper sprayed and hit on the head, his father said. Ambulance crews resuscitated him twice when rushed to a nearby Washington hospital. Sicknick died the next day.
“He ended up with a clot in his brain,” his father said. “If he had been operated on, he would have become a vegetable.”
Sicknick’s death is being investigated as a homicide by the Washington Metropolitan Police. The FBI is helping. As a member of the department’s First Aid Unit, Sicknick was the sixth United States Capitol Police officer to die in the line of duty.
“His death was a waste,” said John Krenzel, mayor of Sicknick’s hometown of South River, New Jersey. “It’s just a tragedy.”
READ: The rioters who stormed the US Capitol are now facing backlash at work
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Sicknick was a Trump supporter, his father said. While his parents avoided discussing politics with their son, his family said Sicknick’s political views never interfered with his duty to protect and serve.
“He just got along really well with everyone because he was a gentleman,” said the elder Sicknick.
Sicknick’s father said Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the family on Friday to offer their condolences.
READ: The senator wants the data of the Capitol protesters to be preserved, they arrest the man who carried the lectern of the Speaker of the House
During the call, Pelosi invited the family to the Capitol to choose a location for a plaque to be made in honor of Sicknick. Funeral services will also be held at the Capitol, according to his father.
Before joining the Capitol Police in 2008, the New Jersey native served in the Air National Guard and was posted to Saudi Arabia and Kyrgyzstan.
Trump has not publicly commented on the death of the officer or the four other people who died when his supporters invaded the Capitol building this week after Trump’s “Save America” rally, where the president urged his supporters to fight.
READ: Trump, increasingly isolated, threatened with a second impeachment
“If something good comes out of my son’s death, I just hope it stops all the madness that has been going on in this country,” his father said.
Sicknick is survived by his parents, two older brothers and his 11-year-old girlfriend.
While there are plans for Sicknick to be cremated and buried in a military cemetery in Arneytown, New Jersey, U.S. Representative Elissa Slotkin said Saturday that she had asked Pentagon leaders to grant him special posthumous honors and burial in Arlington National Cemetery. .
Slotkin said Sicknick kept the oath he took in the military to protect and defend the Constitution, and that he and his family should be recognized for all that he did for their country.
A GoFundMe campaign created to support Sicknick’s family exceeded its goal of $ 250,000 in less than 24 hours.
“I’m supposed to die first,” said her father, who will turn 82 next month. “Not my son.”
