Officer Caroline Edwards of the D.C. Capitol Police spoke in court during the sentencing phase of the trial of Julian Khater, the man who admits to having sprayed Officer Brian Sicknick in the face with bear spray during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack by supporters of Donald Trump. Edwards, who stated that she has suffered from survivor’s guilt after Sicknick passed away, told the court: “that day, these choices, those moments will affect all of us for the rest of our lives.” For the family of Officer Sicknick, justice came in the form of an 80-month prison sentence for Khater, who has already served one year behind bars.
Breaking news: Man sentenced to nearly 7 years in Jan. 6 assault of officer Brian Sicknick, who died of natural causes after the Capitol riot. https://t.co/W5ANGVVohq
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) January 27, 2023
Other Capitol Police officers, those who survived the brutal attack inspired by the twice-impeached ex-president who tried to stage a coup, stood in solidarity in the courtroom with Sicknick’s family. The fallen officer’s mother, Gladys Sicknick, asked Khater and his friend, George Tanios, who will be sentenced on Friday, how it felt “to be headed to jail for a baldfaced lie.”
Khater, Tanios, and the other rioters at the Capitol Building that day believed in Trump’s Big Lie – the lie that Trump actually won the 2020 presidential election against Joe Biden but that it was stolen from him by Democrats, Republican secretaries of state, election workers, volunteers, a vote tabulating machine manufacturer, Italy, and a long-dead president of Venezuela. Along with lawyers like Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, Trump pushed the lie rather than admit defeat, which led to the tragic loss of life at the Capitol.
Sicknick’s death was ruled the result of natural causes, but doctors say the attack contributed to his death.
According to The Washington Post:
‘D.C.’s chief medical examiner previously ruled that Sicknick suffered two strokes and died of natural causes a day after he confronted rioters, and that “all that transpired on that day played a role in his condition.” George Tanios, who was with Khater that day and admitted buying and handing chemical spray to Khater, is also being sentenced Friday. Neither Khater, 32, nor Tanios, 41, was charged in Sicknick’s death.’
Twitter had a lot to say about the news of the nearly seven year prison sentence, with many arguing that it wasn’t long enough and that the term “natural causes” to describe Sicknick’s death is inaccurate. Read some of their comments below:
