Members of the office of the Architect of the US Capitol check for damage in the Rotunda in Washington, DC, on January 7, 2021, one day after the attack by pro-Trump extremists. – AFP photo
The US Capitol police officer who died after being injured in the January 6 attack by pro-Trump rioters will lie in honour at the building’s Rotunda, lawmakers said Friday, a mark of respect rarely bestowed.
Brian Sicknick was reportedly struck in the head with a fire extinguisher while struggling with the rioters who swarmed through the halls of Congress.
The 42-year-old member of the force that protects the ground of the Congress returned to his division office where he collapsed and was taken to the hospital, according to the Capitol Police.
He died the next day, they said, bringing the death toll from the violent attack to five.
“The U.S. Congress is united in grief, gratitude and solemn appreciation for the service and sacrifice of Officer Brian Sicknick,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in a statement Friday.
Sicknick’s actions “during the violent insurrection against our Capitol helped save lives, defend the temple of our democracy and ensure that the Congress was not diverted from our duty to the Constitution.”
“On behalf of the House of Representatives and the Senate, it is our great privilege to pay tribute to Officer Sicknick with this lying-in-honor ceremony,” the statement continued.
Only four other people have laid in honour in the Rotunda previously, according to the House archives website: The Reverend Billy Graham, civil rights icon Rosa Parks, and two other Capitol police officers, Jacob Chestnut and John Gibson, killed during a shooting rampage at the building in 1998.
Pelosi had earlier ordered flags over the Capitol lowered in Sicknick’s honor. Four days after the attack, hundreds of off-duty police lined Constitution Avenue in Washington and saluted as a hearse rolled slowly by carrying his body. – AFP
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