WASHINGTON – The mother and partner of the late Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick are requesting meetings with all Republican senators to urge them to establish an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.
Sicknick suffered two strokes and died of natural causes a day after he confronted rioters at the insurrection, the District’s chief medical examiner ruled last month. In early February, Sicknick, who grew up in New Jersey, was honored at the U.S. Capitol. His remains were interred at Arlington National Cemetery.
U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died Jan. 7 after the riot at the Capitol. United States Capitol Police via AP
Sicknick’s mother, Gladys Sicknick, confirmed to The Washington Post that she sent a statement on the matter to Republican lawmakers.
“My son has been gone for over four months and I want answers, that’s all,” she said in a brief interview Wednesday when asked why she is requesting the meetings.
News of the statement was first reported by Politico.
According to an email obtained by The Post, Gladys Sicknick and Sandra Garza, the officer’s companion of 11 years, will be on Capitol Hill on Thursday and are requesting meetings with every Republican senator “to discuss the importance of establishing the bipartisan January 6th Commission on which the Senate will be voting this week.”
In the statement, which was included in the email, Gladys Sicknick said that her son and his fellow police officers “fought for hours and hours against those animals who were trying to take over the Capitol Building and our Democracy, as we know it.”
“Not having a January 6 Commission to look into exactly what occurred is a slap in the faces of all the officers who did their jobs that day,” she said in the statement. “Because of what they did, the people in the building were able to go home that evening and be with their families. Brian and many other officers ended up in the hospital. I suggest that all Congressmen and Senators who are against this Bill visit my son’s grave in Arlington National Cemetery and, while there, think about what their hurtful decisions will do to those officers who will be there for them going forward.”
Nearly 140 officers were assaulted during the failed insurrection, authorities said, facing some rioters armed with ax handles, bats, metal batons, wooden poles, hockey sticks and other weapons.
The House last week passed legislation that would form an independent commission to investigate the attack. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Tuesday began the process of setting up a Senate vote on the bill, which he said could come later this week.
But the legislation’s prospects in the Senate remain dim. Democrats would need at least 10 Republicans to join them in supporting the measure in order for it to pass. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has voiced opposition to the commission, dismissing it last week as a “slanted and unbalanced proposal” – one day after he said his members were open to voting for the plan but needed a chance to read the “fine print.”
Several Republican lawmakers have also in recent days sought to play down the seriousness of the Jan. 6 attack, comparing the violent mob to “tourists,” railing against law enforcement for seeking to arrest them and questioning how anyone could be sure the rioters were supporters of former president Donald Trump.
In her statement Wednesday, Gladys Sicknick pointed to those statements, noting that her son “died because of the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol Building on January 6.”
“While [he and other police officers] were fighting, congressmen and senators were locking themselves inside their offices,” Gladys Sicknick said. “According to some who were barricaded in their offices said it looked like tourists walking through the Capitol. Really?”
She said all members of Congress should want to understand the facts of what happened that day.
“Putting politics aside, wouldn’t they want to know the truth of what happened on January 6?” she said. “If not, they do not deserve to have the jobs they were elected to do.”
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