Police Officer Slain at the U.S. Capitol was from Middlesex County
Slain U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick was a 1997 graduate of Middlesex County Vocational Technical High School in East Brunswick, according to a news report.
Mr. Sicknick was the fifth person to die as a consequence of the mob riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6th.
Prosecutors in the US Attorney’s office plan to open a federal murder investigation into the death of Mr. Sicknick, the US Capitol Police officer who died Thursday night, a law enforcement official tells CNN.
Details about his death remain in question. A rioter assaulted the officer with the extinguisher, one source told NewsNation on Thursday.
Capitol Police union chairman Gus Papathanasiou told WUSA9 that Sicknick suffered a stroke during the riots while the New York Times reported that he was also hit by the fire extinguisher.
Another official told the Times a “chemical agent” may have led to his injuries.
Mr. Sicknick’s Facebook page was filled with American flags and patriotic themes. A 1998 article in the Central New Jersey Home News said that then Airman Brian D. Sicknick was the son of Charles and Gladys Sicknick of South River.
According to The Daily Beast, Sicknick was also a former Air National Guardsman who served in Operation Desert Shield and Operation Enduring Freedom. Sicknick was from New Jersey and lived in Springfield, Virginia.
He became a police officer after leaving the military.
Mr. Sicknick wrote a letter to the editor in 2000 of the Central New Jersey Home News. “With the military drastically downsizing, the National Guard and Reserves are called upon more than ever. I understand this may cause a hardship on the employers,” he wrote. “There still are some employers in New Jersey that give guardsmen and reservists a hard time when they have to serve.”
He said that “these employers have to start realizing that reservists make up more than 50 percent of the military. They have to start giving these men and women some slack. In order to keep the freedoms we enjoy so much, we must rely on reservists.”
Governor Phil Murphy issued a statement:
Slain?