PRO-TRUMP PROTEST 12 MONTHS ON.
This article came to me from a mate in the US … It paints a different picture of the deaths than that we get from the media.
WHO DIED AND HOW?
By Chris Cameron
Jan. 5, 2022
WASHINGTON — As a pro-Trump protest turned into a violent attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6 last year, four people in the crowd died.
- Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran, was fatally shot by a Capitol Police officer as rioters tried to breach the House chamber.
- Kevin D. Greesondied of a heart attack, collapsing on the sidewalk west of the Capitol on Jan. 6.
- Rosanne Boylandappeared to have been crushed in a stampede of fellow rioters.
- Benjamin Philips, the founder of a pro-Trump website called Trumparoo, died of a stroke.
Mr. Greeson and Mr. Philips died of natural causes, the Washington medical examiner said in April. He added that Ms. Boyland’s death was caused by an accidental overdose.
The Capital Police reported that no firearms were found nor any of the rioter charged with firearms offences.
In the days and weeks after the riot, five police officers who had served at the Capitol on Jan. 6 died.
- Officer Brian D. Sicknickof the Capitol Police, who was attacked by the mob, died on Jan. 7.
- Officer Jeffrey Smithof the Metropolitan Police Department killed himself after the attack.
- Officer Howard S. Liebengoodof the Capitol Police also died by suicide four days afterward.
The Capitol Police had previously said that Officer Sicknick died from injuries sustained “while physically engaging with protesters.” The Washington medical examiner later ruled that he had died of natural causes: multiple strokes that occurred hours after Officer Sicknick’s confrontation with the mob. The medical examiner added, however, that “all that transpired played a role in his condition.”
A bipartisan Senate report, released in June, found that the seven deaths were connected to the Capitol attack. But the report was issued a month before two Metropolitan Police officers — Gunther Hashida and Kyle DeFreytag — died by suicide in July.
The police agencies have not classified the four total suicides as “line of duty” deaths that would provide the victims’ families with enhanced benefits. Washington law excludes suicide deaths from the line-of-duty designation.
