United States Capitol Police confirmed an officer has died from injuries sustained during
The 6 January breach of the Capitol marked a shocking assault on American democracy as Congress was certifying the victory of President-elect Joe Biden.
USCP said Officer Brian Sicknick was injured while “physically engaging” with protesters and later collapsed.
“At approximately 9:30 pm this evening (January 7, 2021), United States Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick passed away due to injuries sustained while on-duty,” USCP said in a statement.
"Officer Sicknick was responding to the riots on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, at the US Capitol and was injured while physically engaging with protesters. He returned to his division office and collapsed."
He was transported to a local hospital where he later died.
“The entire USCP Department expresses its deepest sympathies to Officer Sicknick’s family and friends on their loss, and mourns the loss of a friend and colleague,” the statement said.
The officer's death will be investigated by Metropolitan Police Department’s Homicide Branch, the USCP and federal partners.
Officer Sicknick is the fifth person to die following the riots in Washington, DC. A woman was shot in the chest by a police officer inside the Capitol building, while three others died of apparent medical emergencies during the violence.
The woman was later identified as Ashli Babbitt, a 35-year-old Trump supporter from Maryland.
Police identified the three other people who died as Benjamin Phillips, 50, of Ringtown, Pennsylvania; Kevin Greeson, 55, of Athens, Alabama; and Rosanne Boyland, 34, of Kennesaw, Georgia.
A rioter holds a Trump flag inside the US Capitol Building near the Senate Chamber. Source: Getty Images
The deaths came after Mr Trump's supporters stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday in an unprecedented attack, interrupting the normally ceremonial procedure to certify Mr Biden's election victory.
Mr Trump, who had addressed the mob and urged them to march on the Capitol, later released a video on social media in which he repeated the false claim of election fraud - even telling the mob "I love you”.
“I know your pain. I know you’re hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election, and everyone knows it, especially the other side,” he said in the video.
“But you have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order, we have to respect our great people in law and order. We don’t want anybody hurt."
On Thursday local time, following the certification of Mr Biden's election victory, the outgoing president released a subsequent video on Twitter in which he .
Mr Trump also called the riot "a heinous attack" on the Capitol and said that violators would be prosecuted.
The attack came after he whipped up his supporters with claims that the election had been stolen, and encouraged them to march on the Capitol building.
"We're going walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators, and congressmen and women," he said Wednesday.
"We're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong."
A further 14 DC Metropolitan Police Officers were injured, including two who suffered serious injuries. Police made more than 60 arrests for gun possession, curfew violations and unlawful entry into the building.
- Additional reporting by AFP.
