Brianne Chapman protests outside the federal courthouse in Washington, DC, Friday, during the sentencing hearing for Julian Khater and George Tanios. Khater pleaded guilty to assaulting Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick with pepper spray on January 6, 2021.
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Brianne Chapman protests outside the federal courthouse in Washington, DC, Friday, during the sentencing hearing for Julian Khater and George Tanios. Khater pleaded guilty to assaulting Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick with pepper spray on January 6, 2021.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
A rioter who assaulted law enforcement officers with an unknown chemical spray outside the Capitol Building during the Jan. 6 riot was sentenced Friday to 80 months in prison with credit for time served.
Julian Khater, 33, of Somerset, NJ, pleaded guilty last September to two counts of assault, resisting or obstructing officers with a dangerous weapon during the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol. He has been in prison since March 14, 2021.
One of the officers Khater was accused of assaulting, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, died the day after the attack. Washington, DC, Chief Medical Examiner Francisco Diaz found that Sicknick died of natural causes after suffering multiple strokes; Diaz told the Washington Post“everything that happened played a role in his condition.”
In court on Friday, Sicknick’s mother, Gladys Sicknick, told Khater, “You attacked my son like he was an animal. You are the animal, Mr. Khater… How does it feel to be entitled to jail for a bald face. lie ?”
Khater traveled to the Capitol on January 6, with his now co-defendant, George Pierre Tanios of Morgantown, WV Tanios had bought two cannisters of pepper spray and two cannisters of bear spray sometime before the two men arrived in DC, the Department of Justice says.
They attended former President Donald Trump’s rally at the Ellipse and then marched to the Capitol building, where they joined the crowd to try to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election.
As the crowd pushed to enter the building, law enforcement officers tried to hold the protesters back by using a bicycle rack as a barrier. At 2:23 p.m., rioters tried to pull the shelf away from the officers, which is when Khater sprayed Sicknick in the face, forcing the officer to retreat, the DOJ statement said.
It is not clear whether Khater used the bear or the pepper spray, but he used the weapon on two other officers, who were also forced to retreat.
“The three officers suffered bodily injuries from the pepper spray attack and were incapacitated and unable to perform their duties,” the DOJ statement said.
Officer Caroline Edwards, who was sprayed at the same time as Sicknick, said he became “ghostly pale”. She went on to explain that she was unable to help him because she was temporarily blinded by the chemical spray, and as a result she continues to struggle with survivor’s guilt.
“Brian took some of his last breaths defending the Capitol building … and our democracy,” Edwards said Friday.
The two men were arrested in March 2021 and both pleaded guilty to the charges brought against them.
President Biden presented Serena Liebengood with the Presidential Citizens Medal on behalf of her partner, US Capitol Police officer Howard C. Liebengood, who died by suicide days after the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
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President Biden presented Serena Liebengood with the Presidential Citizens Medal on behalf of her partner, US Capitol Police officer Howard C. Liebengood, who died by suicide days after the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
Patrick Semansky/AP
Sicknick’s longtime partner, Sandra Garza, sued both rioters as well as Trump for Sicknick’s wrongful death. She is seeking $10 million in damages from each defendant.
Garza said during the sentencing that she saw “zero remorse” from either Khater or Tanios.
On the two-year anniversary of the insurrection earlier this month, President Biden awarded 14 people the Presidential Citizens Medal for the defense of the Capitol, including posthumous awards for Sicknick and fellow Officer of Capitol Police Howard Liebengood. Liebengood died by suicide, according to a family lawyer, just days after defending the Capitol Building.
