Khater and Tanios were seen on video in the early afternoon, about 1.5 to 2.5 meters away from police officers, including Officer Sicknick, the FBI said.
In a video of the attack, Khater said, “Give it to me,” and then reached into Tanios’ backpack, the FBI said. Mr. Tanios protested that it was too early, apparently to attack the police with the spray. Mr Khater countered that he had just been sprayed and held up the can of chemical spray.
At 2:23 pm, when other protesters began to clear a barrier between them and the Capitol, Khater aimed his spray can at police officers, the FBI said, citing video footage including a body camera used by a Washington Metropolitan Police Department official. The officers responded “one by one, to something that hit them in the face,” said the FBI. “The cops immediately step back from the line, put their hands on their faces and run to find water to wash their eyes.”
They were unable to defend the Capitol for at least 20 minutes while recovering, the video showed, according to the FBI. Two other officers who were attacked “described the spray on their face as a substance as strong as, if not stronger than, any version of pepper spray they were exposed to during training as police officers,” said the FBI, and one said who had sores on his face for weeks.
Subsequently, Officer Sicknick was rushed to a hospital, where he died. Investigators opened a homicide investigation immediately after the death of the officer, a 42-year-old National Air Guard veteran who served in Saudi Arabia and Kyrgyzstan.
Both officers and protesters spread spray, mace and other irritants during the attack. Given this evidence, prosecutors filed charges of assault rather than murder, police officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
It is not yet clear whether Officer Sicknick died because of his exposure to the spray. On January 7, the day he died, the Capitol Police said in a statement that he “was injured while physically engaging the protesters” in the riot and then “went back to his division’s office and collapsed”.