A Conservative watchdog group filed a lawsuit against the District of Columbia in an attempt to obtain records and information on the death of Brian Sicknick, the Capitol Police Officer killed at the Capitol on January 6.
The group, Judicial Watch, filed the suit after the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner failed to release records that the group requested in February. The Judicial Watch had originally requested “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.”
President of the group, Tom Fitton, said in a statement, “The unusual and unlawful secrecy about Officer Sicknick’s death investigation undermines public confidence in the fair administration of justice.”
The group is also suing the U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) for information relating to the January 6 incident and for communications between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Department of Defense in the days after the unrest.
At first, the media reported that Officer Brian Sicknick had been struck in the head with a fire extinguisher, although his mother denied this claim and no evidence has come forth to support it.
“He wasn’t hit on the head, no. We think he had a stroke, but we don’t know anything for sure,” Gladys Sicknick told the Daily Mail in February.
“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,” the USCP said in a statement released on January 7.
