Washington, D.C., Jan. 7 (UPI) — A Capitol Police officer has died and at least 68 people have been charged with crimes following a siege by supporters of President Donald Trump on the U.S. Capitol that Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser on Thursday called “acts of domestic terrorism and sedition” and requested the Joint Terrorism Task Force to investigate.
U.S. Capitol Police confirmed late Thursday that an officer injured during the siege on the Capitol has died. Officer Brian D. Sicknick died at 9:30 p.m. ET due to “injuries sustained while on-duty,” the Capitol Police statement said.
Sicknick was injured during a physical confrontation with protesters and collapsed after returning to his division office when he was taken to local hospitals, the statement said, adding his death is being investigated by the homicide branch of the Metropolitan Police Department.
Earlier Thursday, Rep. Dean Phillips, R-Minn., wrote on Twitter that he’d been advised that a U.S. Capitol Police officer had died after sustaining injuries during the riot.
However, U.S. Capitol Police in response said the reports were “not accurate” a few hours before Sicknick died.
In a press conference Thursday, Bowser said the mob’s failure a day earlier to stop Congress from certifying the presidential election win by President-elect Joe Biden shows democracy prevailed.
“This should send a clear message to our nation and the world that despite actions of an unhinged president and those that believe the baseless conspiracies that have been peddled by him and by other elected officials that the United States remains strong,” she said.
During the siege, one officer discharged their weapon, striking a woman who was transported to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead. The woman was identified as Ashli Babbitt, of Ocean Beach, Calif.
A man and two women in the area of the Capitol grounds also died Wednesday due to medical emergencies, Capitol Police said.
The D.C. Police Department identified the deceased as Rosanne Boyland, 43, of Kennesaw, Ga.; Benjamin Philips, 50, of Ringtown, Pa., and Kevin Greeson, 55, of Athens, Ala.
At least 56 officers were injured during the day, D.C. Police Department said Thursday afternoon. Two remained hospitalized.
The police chief said earlier Thursday that of the two officers hospitalized, one was suffered facial injuries from being struck with a projectile and the other sustained serious injuries when they were pulled into a crowd and assaulted.
Fifty of those arrests resided in 18 states with only one person arrested from D.C. and 11 from Maryland and Virginia, according to police.
D.C. metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee III told reporters during the press conference that of the arrests, 41 occurred on Capitol grounds.
