Dead US Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick to lie in honor

The United States lawmakers, as a mark of respect, will lay in honor the US Capitol police officer who died after sustaining injuries in the January 6 capitol attack by pro-Trump rioters before President Joe Biden’s certification. As per an AFP report, laying an officer in the building’s Rotunda seldom happens.

The officer, Brian Sicknick, reportedly received a blow to the head with a fire extinguisher while struggling with the rioters, who flooded the halls of Congress.

“The U.S. Congress is united in grief, gratitude and solemn appreciation for the service and sacrifice of Officer Brian Sicknick,” AFP quoted Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer as saying in a joint statement.

Also Read | Pipe bombs installed in Washington were placed the night before the riots: FBI

After getting injured, the 42-year-old returned to his division office where he collapsed and was taken to the hospital, according to the Capitol Police.

He died the following day, thus taking the death toll from the violent attack to five.

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.”

Also Read | More than 150 persons charged with federal crimes over Capitol riots: Department of Justice

“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 honor 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.