United States Capitol Police (USCP) Officer Brian Sicknick, who died Thursday after injuries he sustained responding to demonstrators storming the Capitol Wednesday, was a veteran of the New Jersey Air National Guard.
New Jersey Air National Guard Spokeswoman Lt. Col. Barbara Brown told Military.com Sicknick joined the Guard in 1997 and served for six years.
Brown said Sicknick was a fire team member and leader with the 108th Security Force Squadron, based out of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, in New Jersey. He had previously deployed to Saudi Arabia in 1999 as part of Operation Southern Watch and to Kyrgyzstan in 2003 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He was honorably discharged in 2003 as a staff sergeant.
USCP confirmed Sicknick’s death in a press release Thursday, stating, “Officer Sicknick was responding to the riots on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol and was injured while physically engaging with protesters. He returned to his division office and collapsed. He was taken to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.”
USCP said Sicknick’s death would be investigated by the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department’s Homicide Branch, the USCP, and other federal agencies.
Sicknick joined the USCP in July 2008 and was most recently assigned to the department’s First Responder Unit.
Sicknick was one of five people who died from injuries sustained during the demonstrations at the Capitol.
One woman, since identified as U.S. Air Force veteran Ashli Babbit, was fatally shot by a USCP Officer. Babbit had served in the Air Force for 14 years and served four tours. Military.com reported Babbit deployed to Afghanistan in 2005, Iraq in 2006, and the United Arab Emirates in 2012 and 2014.
Another woman and two men also died after what D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officials described as “medical emergencies.”
In another Thursday statement, USCP Chief Steven Sund said 50 Capitol police and Metropolitan police officers were injured and several USCP officers are hospitalized with serious injuries.
Sund said, “The USCP had a robust plan established to address anticipated First Amendment activities. But make no mistake – these mass riots were not First Amendment activities; they were criminal riotous behavior.”
USCP arrested 14 people for unlawful entry at the Capitol on Wednesday, and Acting MPD Chief Robert Contee said at least 52 total people were arrested in connection with the incident at the Capitol, including 26 total on Capitol grounds.
