Biden and Harris join Capitol Police, leaders of Congress to honor Officer Brian Sicknick
By Meagan Flynn and Paul Duggan,
Brian D. Sicknick, the Capitol Police officer who suffered fatal injuries Jan. 6 when a riotous mob rampaged through the building, was remembered Wednesday morning for his heroism on that chaotic day.
In a short speech on the Senate floor before a 10:30 a.m. memorial service, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Sicknick “lies in honor under the dome of the institution he swore to defend and died defending.”
“Four weeks ago the Rotunda was strewn with the debris of an insurrectionist mob,” McConnell said. “Today it is adorned in solemn thanksgiving to the sacrifice of a hero.”
Sicknick, 42, lay in honor in the Capitol Rotunda starting Tuesday evening, when visitors included President Biden and first lady Jill Biden, congressional leaders and long lines of Capitol Police officers. Vice President Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff came to the Capitol on Wednesday morning to pay their respects.
Demetrius Freeman
AP/Pool
Vice President Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff pay respects to U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick.
Harris, who served in the Senate until days before she and President Biden were sworn into office, paused with her husband in the Rotunda before a wooden box containing Sicknick’s cremated remains alongside a tri-folded American flag in a polished case.
Biden, himself a former senator, had made the same solemn visit about 12 hours earlier, placing his hand over his heart and making the sign of the cross, then shaking his head before walking away.
Sicknick was among scores of officers hurt when rioters supporting the false election fraud claims of President Donald Trump violently besieged the Capitol, trying in vain to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s victory.
“He cared about his job, didn’t get political. He was a man who did his job to the fullest,” said a K-9 Capitol Police officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity after leaving the Rotunda because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. “Seeing him now is tough.”
Authorities have not publicly specified the cause of Sicknick’s death, which is being investigated by D.C. police homicide detectives.
After the memorial ceremony Wednesday morning, the officer’s remains were being brought to Arlington National Cemetery for a private burial.
Even as he was honored, the Senate was preparing to hear arguments in Trump’s trial on an impeachment article alleging that he incited the insurrection.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/brian-sicknick-lies-in-honor-in-us-capitol-rotunda/2021/02/02/2532b956-1b94-4bba-a2a5-30750fa991bd_video.html
The mayhem at the Capitol followed a rally near the White House at which Trump railed that the election had been stolen from him — a baseless assertion he had been making for two months — and told thousands of his followers to march to the Capitol, where a joint session of Congress was about to begin the process of finalizing Biden’s win.
The head of the Capitol Police union has said about 140 officers were injured, some of them grievously.
“I have officers who were not issued helmets prior to the attack who have sustained head injuries,” Gus Papathanasiou, the union chairman, said in a statement last week. “One officer has two cracked ribs and two smashed spinal discs and another was stabbed with a metal fence stake, to name some of the injuries.”
Dozens of people across the country have been arrested by federal agents and charged with taking part in the mayhem, but no one has been accused of killing Sicknick or contributing to his death.
Andrew Harnik
AP
A memorial for U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick near the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 14.
Sicknick, who joined the force 12 years ago, is the fifth deceased person who was not a public official or military leader to lie in the Rotunda. Congress approved the honor for the Rev. Billy Graham in 2018; civil rights hero Rosa Parks in 2005; and two other members of the Capitol police force, officer Jacob Chestnut and detective John Gibson, who were killed in 1998 by a gunman in the building.
A veteran of the New Jersey Air National Guard, Sicknick had dreamed of becoming a police office since childhood, family members said. He grew up in South River, N.J., in the northern part of the state, earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, rescued dachshunds and was a big fan of the New Jersey Devils hockey team.
Salwan Georges
The Washington Post/Pool
U.S. Capitol Police officers stand guard next to Sicknick’s remains.
Before Sicknick’s remains were brought to the Capitol on Tuesday, dozens of Capitol Police officers rehearsed the procession and prepared for the ceremonies. Shortly before 9 p.m., they gathered in the halls near the Rotunda to rest.
One officer, who spoke on the condition that he only be identified as Officer Steve because he was not authorized to speak to reporters, said he had been at the Capitol since 5 a.m.
“We were given the opportunity to leave. I chose to stay,” he said, adding that he did not want to miss the honor being bestowed on his fallen colleague.
He said he had spent the summer working with Sicknick on the police line at racial justice demonstrations and would salute Sicknick’s remains as they were carried up the marble steps. “Everybody loved him,” the officer said. “He would do anything for anyone.”
Since the riot at the Capitol, the police force has been inundated with overtime assignments, the officer said. Tuesday night felt like the first time they could grieve.
The urn containing Sicknick’s remains arrived about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, and was borne up the steps of the Capitol’s East Front in a frigid wind.
A phalanx of police officers stood at attention on each side of the plaza below the marble steps as two officers marched solemnly upward, carrying the small wooden box and a tri-folded American flag, which they set atop the bier, a table made specially for Sicknick.
After a private service attended by Sicknick’s family, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Charles E.. Schumer (D-N.Y.) were among the first to pay their respects in the Rotunda. They were joined by House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and others.
Acting Capitol Police chief Yogananda Pittman paused at the urn and slowly raised her right hand in a salute. Then more officers and members of the military filed in. Only muffled footfalls and camera shutters broke the silence.
The Bidens’ turn came at 10 p.m. An hour later, the dignitaries had left, but a police honor guard remained and officers filtered in, standing with heads bowed by the velvet ropes surrounding the bier.
One officer removed his hat, covered his face with the palm of his left hand and seemed to offer a silent prayer.
Salwan Georges
The Washington Post/Pool
A fellow law enforcement officer pays his respects.
Read more:
Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick protected with a kind touch
How the government and law enforcement failed to stop the Capitol attack
‘We’ve got to hold this door’: Battered D.C. police held off the rioters
