After the death of officer Brian Sicknick, the flags of the US and US Capitol Police were hoisted on half poles. On Sunday, the FBI arrested two men alleged to have sprayed Sicknick and others with chemicals. Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images Hide caption
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Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
After the death of officer Brian Sicknick, the flags of the US and US Capitol Police were hoisted on half poles. On Sunday, the FBI arrested two men alleged to have sprayed Sicknick and others with chemicals.
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
Two men were arrested for allegedly spraying a chemical on Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick and two other police officers while the U.S. Capitol was stormed on Jan. 6. Sicknick died a day later; Officials recently said they are still determining what factors could have led to his death.
The two men are Julian Elie Khater, 32, from State College, Pennsylvania, and George Pierre Tanios, 39, from Morgantown, West Virginia. They were arrested on Sunday for crime, says the Justice Department.
Tanios was arrested at his home; Khater was arrested while stepping off a plane at Newark Airport in New Jersey.
Sicknick died the day after his injuries during the attack by a crowd of Trump supporters trying to prevent Congress from confirming President Biden’s victory over the former president.
Shortly after the Capitol Police officer died, the Justice Department opened a federal homicide investigation into Sicknick’s death.
The news of the two arrests comes two weeks after the FBI one person singled out who was seen spraying a substance on Sicknick and other police officers. At the time, the Capitol Police stressed the medical examiner’s report of Sicknick’s death Not finished yetand added that they were still waiting for toxicological results.
During a dispute with the police in the Capitol, Khater asked Tanios to “give me the bear,” the Justice Department said, citing video footage from the scene.
After removing a canister from Tanios’ backpack, Khater stepped to the head of the crowd next to the police room. Then he raised his hand, pointed the canister at Sicknick and two other officers standing a few feet away, and waved his arm from side to side, the agency said.
The three officers – Sicknick and C. Edwards of the Capitol Police and D. Chapman of the Washington Metropolitan Police – had to withdraw immediately, “holding their hands up to their faces and rushing to find water to wash their eyes,” the Justice Department said. The agency did not provide the officers’ first names.
Investigators said they were drawn to Khater and Tanios through tips from the public, including one person who, according to a criminal complaint and affidavit in the case, said they “knew each other and grew up together in New Jersey”.
At the Capitol, Tanios was spotted wearing a hoodie with the logo of the Sandwich University restaurant in Morgantown, known for its “fat sandwich”. A witness told the FBI that Tanios owns the “Fat Sandwich” restaurant, and social media accounts show that “George Pierre Tanios” is linked to the “kingofthefatsandwich” account.
Khater was found after a tip directed investigators to his LinkedIn page – where they then contacted a witness who identified him. The witness said they worked with Khater in a “food facility” at state college.
Both Khater and Tanios face “a number of conspiracies to injure an officer; three numbers of attacks on a federal official with a dangerous weapon; a number of civil unrest; a number of obstacles that impede or impede a formal process; a number of physical violence Restricted reasons while carrying dangerous weapons and resulting in significant physical harm; and a number of violent and disorderly behavior, physical violence for the sake of the Capitol, ”says the Justice Department.
