Never-before-seen video shows the moment a rioter blasted Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick in the face with a chemical spray during the siege on the building.
Federal prosecutors presented police body camera footage of the attack for the first time in court on Monday — providing a clearer look into the events that are now being scrutinized in Sicknick’s death.
Two of the rioters, Julian Khater and pal George Tanios, have been charged with assaulting Sicknick with bear spray. The 42-year-old officer died the next day.
The body cam footage, along with other new videos obtained by the New York Times, show the two friends arriving at the west side of the Capitol at 2:09 p.m. — then approaching Sicknick and other officers who are standing guard along metal barriers about 15 minutes later.
“Give me that bear s–t,” Khater can be heard saying on video at one point, as he grabbed Tanios’s backpack, according to the indictment.
The grainy body cam footage shows Khater raising his hand and deploying the chemical spray at the officers, including Sicknick, who then stumbles back.
The Metropolitan Police Department has refused to release the videos to the public, the Times reported.
Other videos taken from within the crowd show the alleged attack from another angle — and Sicknick, dressed in a blue Capitol police jacket, bike helmet and face mask, quickly turning away as he’s struck.
Images from a Times photographer show Sicknick afterward bent over, trying to flush his eyes out with water.
At some point, Sicknick was also struck in the head with a fire extinguisher.
The veteran Capitol cop, and New Jersey native, collapsed later that day and was taken to the hospital. He suffered a blood clot and stroke — and died the night of Jan. 7.
On Monday, prosecutors claimed Khater and Tanios were carrying Frontiersman bear spray at the riots. They said Tanios also had on him two smaller cans of pepper spray and two cans of Frontiersman spray, which he purchased the day before the Jan. 6 insurrection, USA Today reported.
It’s not clear which was used in Sicknick’s attack. His autopsy and cause of death have not yet been released.
But a law enforcement source told the Associated Press that evidence suggests he ingested a chemical — which may have contributed to his death.
Prosecutors have not ruled out pursuing murder charges against Khater and Tanios, who both remained jailed.
“If evidence directly relates that chemical to his death, yeah,” Acting United States Attorney for the District of Columbia Michael Sherwin told “60 Minutes” this week. “We have causation, we have a link. Yes. In that scenario, correct, that’s a murder case.”
