A conservative watchdog group sued the District of Columbia for the autopsy report of Brian Sicknick, a Capitol Police officer who died after defending the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 siege of Congress.
The Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, filed in District of Columbia Superior Court, also seeks related records about Sicknick, whose death is under investigation, but more than two months after the attack remains shrouded in mystery, as a cause of death has yet to be released.
Judicial Watch, which filed the suit with the clerk of the court on Friday, said it sued after the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of the District of Columbia denied the group’s Feb. 16 FOIA request for: “All records, including but not limited to autopsy reports, toxicology reports, notes, photographs, and OCME officials’ electronic communications, related to the death on Jan. 6, 2021 of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick and its related investigation.”
TWO MEN CHARGED WITH CHEMICAL SPRAY ASSAULT OF OFFICER BRIAN SICKNICK
Capitol Police announced that Sicknick, a 42-year-old who joined the agency in 2008, died around 9:30 p.m. on Jan. 7, one day after rioters broke into the Capitol as lawmakers counted electoral votes to affirm President Biden’s victory.
“Sicknick passed away due to injuries sustained while on-duty,” Capitol Police said in a statement. “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. The death of Officer Sicknick will be investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department’s Homicide Branch, the USCP, and our federal partners.”
Early media reports cited law enforcement officials who said Sicknick was struck by a fire extinguisher, but a month later, news outlets reported that investigators began to dismiss the idea in favor of the theory that Sicknick was sprayed by an irritant, such as bear spray, and had a fatal reaction. This week, two men were charged with assaulting Sicknick and two other officers with an unknown chemical spray as they attempted to break through a bike rack barrier on Capitol grounds. The men were not charged with murdering Sicknick.
“The unusual and unlawful secrecy about Officer Sicknick’s death investigation undermines public confidence in the fair administration of justice,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The House impeached former President Donald Trump on a charge of inciting an insurrection in connection to the Capitol riot. He was acquitted by the Senate, but before that, the House impeachment managers mentioned Sicknick as they made their case against Trump. In fact, a pretrial memo cited the New York Times’s reporting, saying, “The insurrectionists killed a Capitol Police officer by striking him in the head with a fire extinguisher.”
Sicknick received the rare tribute of lying in honor in the Capitol rotunda, where his casket was visited by President Biden, and Sicknick’s cremated remains were sent to Arlington National Cemetery.
