Jan. 6 Hearing Recounts NJ Native, Cop Defending U.S. Capitol

WASHINGTON — A Capital Police officer recalled her then-colleague — New Jersey native Brian Sicknick — turning "ghostly pale" before rioters approached them during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. During Thursday's hearing on the attempted coup, Caroline Edwards recounted the attacks against her and Sicknick, who was injured in the riot and then died after suffering two strokes a day later.

Edwards testified that she and Sicknick spent 30 to 45 minutes together, trying to hold back the mob who wanted to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential Election in then-President Donald Trump's favor. None of the officers wore protective gear, she said.

Sicknick and Edwards were among the more-than-140 Capitol officers injured during the insurrection, according to the U.S. Capitol Police Labor Committee. Four officers also died by suicide in the days and months after the riot.

The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 events also played video of rioters breaking through the barrier outside the Capitol, knocking Edwards unconscious.

"We were just, you know, grappling over bike racks and trying to hold them as quick as possible," Edwards said. "All of the sudden, I see movement to the left of me, and I turned and it was Officer Sicknick with his head in his hands, and he was ghostly pale."

At that point, Edwards believed Sicknick had been sprayed with a chemical irritant. The growing crowd began to press against the barricades, Edwards recalled. The video showed the officers struggling to hold onto the bike racks.

"My cop alarm bells went off, because if you get sprayed with pepper spray, you’re going to turn red," Edwards said, as Sicknick's family looked on. "He turned just about as pale as this sheet of paper. And so I looked back to see what had hit him, what had happened, and that’s when I got sprayed in the eyes as well."

At one point, Edwards was knocked unconscious. She woke up and resumed her efforts to contain rioters. The officer called it a "war scene," where she slipped on blood with injured colleagues on the ground around her.

"I have never in my wildest dreams thought that as a police officer, as a law enforcement officer, I would find myself in the middle of a battle," Edwards said. "I’m trained to detain a couple of subjects and handle a crowd, but I am not combat trained and that day it was just hours of hand-to-hand combat — hours of dealing with things that were way beyond any law enforcement officer who is ever trained for."

The District of Columbia's chief medical examiner found that Sicknick suffered two strokes nearly eight hours after getting chemically sprayed during the riot. Chief Medical Examiner Francisco J. Diaz told The Washington Post in April 2021 that Sicknick died of natural causes, but "all that transpired played a role in his condition."

The findings countered false reports that Sicknick died of blunt force trauma after getting hit by a fire extinguisher. But U.S. Capitol police said "this does not change the fact Officer Sicknick died in the line of duty, courageously defending Congress and the Capitol."

Sicknick, 42, was born in New Brunswick and grew up in South River. His cremated remains were lain in honor Feb. 2, 2021, in the Capitol Rotunda, before they were buried with full honors at Arlington National Cemetary.

Thursday marked the first public hearing from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot. The committee expects hearings to last through July.

Watch Thursday's hearing below: