Two arrested for assaulting a police officer who died after the riot at the Capitol

Two men arrested for assaulting a Capitol policeman Brian Sicknick, died after responding to the riots Jan. 6, the Justice Department announced on Monday. Details surrounding Sicknick’s death remain unclear.

Julian Elie Khater, 32, of State College, Pennsylvania, and George Pierre Tanios, 39, of Morgantown, West Virginia, are accused of spraying police officers with a chemical spray. They face nine counts, including assaulting a federal agent with a dangerous weapon.

Prosecutors said surveillance footage showed Kater and Tanios working together to attack law enforcement with the chemical spray and demolish the bike rack barriers that guarded the Capitol building.

They also viewed an open-source video of the attacks, they said, showed Khater approaching Tanios, saying, “Give me that bear” and “They just watered me.” Khater is then shown holding a white box that appears to be chemical spray. They later said Khater sprayed the chemical on three officers.

“The officers immediately pull out of the line, put their hands to their faces and rush to find water to wash their eyes,” the affidavit states. Prosecutors said officers were temporarily blinded and required medical attention.

Sicknick said he was pepper sprayed with a substance. The other two officers described the spray as “as strong a substance, if not stronger, than any version of pepper spray they had been exposed to during their training as law enforcement officers. “.

Later that night, Capitol Hill police said Sicknick, 42, returned to “his division office and collapsed”. He was taken to a local hospital where he died. His cause of death has not yet been determined.

His brother, Ken Sicknick, said Brian wanted to be a police officer his whole life. “Brian is a hero and that’s what we would like people to remember,” Ken said in a January release.

Prosecutors said an informant reported Khater’s LinkedIn page to investigators, who then contacted his former colleague at State College in Pennsylvania. After reviewing old working documents, the ex-colleague confirmed that Khater was his last name.

Meanwhile, investigators received two tips, including photos of Tanios during the Capitol Riot. Prosecutors said Tanios was wearing clothes with “Sandwich University” in his profile picture and other photos from January 6. The tipster said Tanios is the owner of Sandwich University, a fast food restaurant in Morgantown.

The two men appeared in court on Monday. Prosecutors are calling for detention so that the men remain behind bars for the time being. Tanios has a bail hearing scheduled for Thursday.

Federal prosecutors charged more than 300 people and arrested more than 280 in connection with the Capitol riot on January 6. complex investigation never prosecuted by the Department of Justice. “