2 indicted for assault of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died after riot
FILE – In this Feb. 2, 2021, file photo a placard is displayed with an image of the late U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick on it as people wait for an urn with his cremated remains to be carried into the U.S. Capitol to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington. Federal investigators probing the death Sicknick, a U.S. Capitol Police officer killed in the Jan. 6 riot, have zeroed in on a suspect seen on video appearing to spray a chemical substance on the officer before he later collapsed and died, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. (Brendan Smialowski/Pool via AP, File)
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WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — The two men arrested and charged this week with assaulting U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick with bear spray during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot were indicted by a grand jury on 10 counts Wednesday.
Charges against Julian Khater, 32 and George Tanios, 39 include conspiracy to injure officers, assault on federal officers and civil disorder.
The indictment alleges Khater and Tanios “planned and discussed the timing of when to use the chemical spray,” which “did cause significant bodily injury.”
The men sprayed at least three officers, including Sicknick, with an unidentified, but powerful, chemical agent. Sicknick was later rushed to a hospital and died the next day.
Khater and Tanios are not charged with homicide. An official cause of death for Sicknick has not yet been announced.
An affidavit said the three officers, “were incapacitated and unable to perform their duties for at least 20 minutes or longer while they recovered from the spray.” One officer said the spray was “as strong as, if not stronger than, any version of the pepper spray they had been exposed to during their training as law enforcement officers.”
The arrests are the closest federal prosecutors have come to identifying and charging anyone associated with the deaths that happened during and after the riot. Five people died, including a woman who was shot by a police officer inside the Capitol. But many rioters are facing charges of injuring police officers, who were attacked with bats, sprayed with irritants, punched and kicked, and rammed with metal gates meant to keep the insurrectionists from the Capitol.
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