A Capitol Police officer wounded during the pro-Trump uprising at the U.S. Capitol was on life support devices due to a brain injury on Thursday night, his family said.
CNN and a local TV station reported that the policeman died, but Capitol Police later said this was inaccurate.
And the official’s family told The Daily Beast that the last time they heard it was that he was on a respirator with a blood clot in his brain and that “it didn’t look good”.
If it does not survive, it will be the fifth fatality linked to the insurrection. One woman was shot by the police while trying to break into the Chamber’s chamber and three others died of “medical emergencies”.
The officer is a former National Air Force guard who served in Operation Desert Shield and Operation Enduring Freedom before joining the police force, said a relative. The family was driving from New Jersey to the hospital.
The Daily Beast is not releasing the official’s name, and the Capitol Police have not identified him.
Authorities identified four people who died, including an Alabama sales representative who tweeted COVID-19’s hoaxes and a Georgia woman who was reportedly crushed by the crowd.
Benjamin Philips, 50, from Pennsylvania; Kevin Greeson, 55, from Alabama; and Rosanne Boyland, 34, from Georgia died on Wednesday after suffering “medical emergencies” while “being on Capitol Hill,” said Metropolitan Police Department chief Robert Contee.
Ashli Babbitt, 35, was shot dead by a plainclothes officer after climbing a broken window and trying to get into the town hall. More than 50 Capitol and DC police were injured during the riot when Congress met to confirm the victory of Joe Biden’s Electoral College, including several who were hospitalized. All four deaths are under investigation.
Although authorities did not provide details about medical emergencies, Greeson’s son said his father died of a heart attack in the middle of the protest. Boyland died after being crushed by the crowd, according to a report, while Philips had a stroke, other protesters said.
“My father had a heart attack yesterday and unfortunately passed away,” said Kyler Greeson in a statement. “We all loved him very much. He made me the man I am today. Always going … to car shows to support me and enjoy the cars together. He, my brother and I would ride a motorcycle together and have a great time. He was such a good man that we all missed him so much. Please keep our family in your thoughts and prayers. “
The New York Times reported that Greeson passed out while talking to his wife on the phone among a crowd of Trump supporters on the west side of the Capitol building. Emergency personnel rushed to help the father of five and began chest compressions – but were unable to revive him, the report said.
His wife, Kristie Greeson, told the Times her husband – who suffered from high blood pressure – was excited to attend Trump’s rally because he believed the election had been stolen from the president.
“He felt it was a monumental event in his mind,” she said, noting that her husband left home on Tuesday and spent the night with a friend in Virginia. “I didn’t want him to go. I didn’t think it was safe. “
Greeson’s wife also noted that her husband was a “policy addict” who “saw the good and the bad in Trump.” His social media accounts confirmed his affinity for the president.
In a July 28 tweet, Greeson falsely claimed, “Hydroxychloroquine zinc and z-pac works to cure you of Covid-19” before adding, “Trump 2020 … Twitter sucks!” (There is no conclusive evidence that zithromax and azithromycin, used to treat various infections, and hydroxychloroquine, used to treat or prevent malaria, can cure COVID-19.)
Greeson has only posted to Twitter six times since he entered 2019. Although most are tweets supporting Trump’s 2020 campaign, the 55-year-old man also called ex Ohio Governor John Kasich, an outspoken critic of Trump, an “idiot”.
According to his LinkedIn, Greeson has been a senior sales representative at Allied Mineral Products in Athens for the past five months and has more than 20 years of experience in “security management and sales management”. He had previously worked at Goodyear Textile Mill as a safety training coordinator for 21 years until 2006.
Without confirming Boyland’s name, police said a woman was crushed to death among the Capitol crowd, according to Axios.
In an interview with News 11 Alive, 1 of Boyland’s sisters described her as a “really happy and wonderful person” and shared a photo of her smiling with a tattoo on her chest that says “Beautiful disaster”.
Kennesaw, Georgia’s resident has had a number of disagreements with the law. Court records indicate that she pleaded guilty to heroin and cocaine charges, as well as receiving stolen property in 2011. Boyland has also been charged with possession or distribution of heroin at least four other times in Fulton and Cobb counties, in addition to battery charges, obstruction of law enforcement, and transgression over the years.
On his Facebook account, Boyland shared posts from the far-right activist group Project Veritas and videos from Trump’s rallies. In a post, she again shared the anti-xxx conspiracy and coronavirus theories. “I understand that Covid can be deadly or very dangerous for SOME people, but they are also peanuts, strawberries and seafood,” says the post.
In another post shared on January 3, Boyland falsely said that all hotels, restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations and convenience stores in DC would be closed by mid-January to prevent Trump supporters from converging on the city.
“For all Patriots going to DC, bring EXTRA food, water, blankets, supplies and have a plan for where to sleep. Patriots who don’t go to DC, please echo that information, ”said the post.
Philips, a Pennsylvania computer programmer, died of a stroke, just hours after driving a white van to the rally and coordinating the transportation of several of his fellow Trump supporters, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
According Inquirer, he said before the protest: “It seems like the first day of the rest of our lives, to be honest … They should call this year Zero because something is going to happen”.
According to a LinkedIn that matches his name, Philips was the founder of TRUMPAROO.com, a now defunct website for MAGA supporters, and majored in computer science at Temple University. He told the Inquirer earlier this week, he named the place after a plush kangaroo he made, who had orange hair and red, white and blue boxing gloves – and should look like Trump.
Gordy Smith, a protester who traveled with Philips to DC, said he started calling Philips when the 50-year-old man did not show up at the group’s meeting place at 6 pm to return home. Finally, Smith told the Inquirer, a police officer picked up the phone and said he had suffered a stroke and died at George Washington University Hospital.
“Everyone was shocked,” said Smith. “It was a very dark journey home.”
Babbitt, a resident of Ocean Beach, California, and a 14-year veteran of the Air Force, posted in support of the violent QAnon conspiracy theory and was relentless in supporting the president. In total, she sent 21 tweets referencing the slogan QAnon, starting in February 2020. She also seemed to embrace conspiracy theories that hospitals are claiming fake coronavirus patients.
Her husband, Aaron Babbitt, told KUSI that he did not travel with her to DC and that he was due to pick her up at the airport on Friday.
“Ashli was loyal and also extremely passionate about what he believed in,” Babbitt’s brother-in-law, Justin Jackson, told KNSD-TV. “She loved this country and was honored to have served in our Armed Forces.”