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Jan. 6 (UPI) — The partner of late Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died after responding to the Jan. 6, 2021, riots in Washington, D.C., filed a wrongful death lawsuit against former President Donald Trump and others.
Sandra Garza accuses Trump, along with Jan. 6 protesters Julian Khater and George Tanios. Khater and Tanios had been charged with carrying out the assault on Sicknick with chemical spray.
“The horrific events of January 6, 2021, including Officer Sicknick’s tragic, wrongful death, were a direct and foreseeable consequence of the Defendants’ unlawful actions,” the suit said.
The civil suit seeks $10 million in damages from each defendant.
Sicknick, 42, died a day after the attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021. Washington’s chief medical examiner ruled in April 2021 that he died of natural causes after having suffered two strokes.
Garza’s lawsuit alleges Trump incited the riots by making false claims about the results of the 2020 election and cites a tweet Trump sent ahead of the riots calling for his supporters to show up to the Capitol on Jan. 6, which read “Be there, will be wild!”
“Defendant Trump intentionally riled up the crowd and directed and encouraged a mob to attack the U.S. capitol and attack those who opposed them,” the suit states.
A Trump spokesperson told ABC News that the former president “clearly and unequivocally stated that Americans should ‘peacefully and patriotically make their voices heard.”
“President Trump is immune from frivolous attacks and will continue to be fully focused on his mission to Make America Great Again,” the spokesperson said.
Khater pleaded guilty criminally to assaulting police with a dangerous weapon and Tanios pleaded guilty to entering and remaining in a restricted building and disorderly or disruptive conduct in that building in relation to the incident. They have yet to be sentenced.
An FBI agent said in court documents that Khater and Tanios were “working in concert and had a plan to use the toxic spray against law enforcement.” The agent also said that Khater appeared to time his deployment of chemical substances to coincide with other rioters’ efforts to forcibly remove the bike rack barriers.
