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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Two arrested in assault on police officer Brian Sicknick

Two arrested in assault on police officer Brian Sicknick

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Two arrested in assault on police officer Brian SicknickWaPo link.

U.S. authorities have arrested and charged two men with assaulting U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick with bear spray during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot but have not determined whether the exposure caused his death.

Julian Elie Khater, 32, of Pennsylvania, and George Pierre Tanios, 39 of Morgantown, W.Va., were arrested Sunday and are expected to appear in federal court Monday

“Give me that bear s—,” Khater allegedly said to Tanios on video recorded at the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol at 2:14 p.m., where Sicknick and other officers were standing guard behind metal bicycle racks, arrest papers say.

Open thread

Reader Interactions

66Comments

  2. 2.

    JPL

    That’s good news, and I hope that they continue rounding up the white supremacists.

     

    OT how are the ducks?

  3. 3.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    Fair trial, fine hanging. Okay, I’d accept Fair Trial, rest of life in a fed penitentiary with no chance of parole.

  4. 4.

    PaulWartenberg

    Glad to know that the investigation is getting results, and now it’s a question of getting the Congressional Republicans to admit they are in league with murdering radicals.

  5. 5.

    The Moar You Know

    We are such a nice country, at least to right-wing terrorists.  In most nations, participating in a coup against a legitimate government is a one-way trip to the gallows or firing squad.  And should be.

  6. 6.

    Mai Naem mobile

    So does John know this Tanios guy? I mean like everybody knows each other in WVa right?

  9. 9.

    justawriter

    Ever since Gordon Kahl, Branch Davidians, and Ruby Ridge, I have been waiting for Democrats to start painting the right wing as baby-raping cop killers, or at least being supporters. Perhaps we are finally starting to become uncivil enough to paint a true picture of these “patriots”.

  12. 12.

    Redshift

    @The Moar You Know:

    We are such a nice country, at least to right-wing terrorists.  In most nations, participating in a coup against a legitimate government is a one-way trip to the gallows or firing squad.  And should be. 

    No it isn’t. Most nations have abolished capital punishment.

  13. 13.

    Baud

    @Benw:

    If trying to violently overthrow a democratically elected government because my candidate lost is wrong, I don’t want to be right.

  17. 17.

    Death Panel Truck

    @Redshift: According to Amnesty International, although most nations have abolished capital punishment, over 60% of the world’s population live in countries where the death penalty is retained, such as China, India, the United States, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran,  Japan, and Taiwan.

  19. 19.

    E.

    I am no fan at all of the felony murder statutes but so many POC would have been instantaneously charged with it in circumstances where a fatality was much less foreseeable than this one. If you are fighting over an opportunity to bear spray a very outnumbered cop during a riot attended by hundreds of people in military gear who are erecting gallows and shouting their desire to execute people, and then that cop is indeed murdered by your crowd, well . . . .

  20. 20.

    Patricia Kayden

    @waspuppet: They’re actually Antifa and BLM activists. No real (White Christian) patriot would engage in such reprehensible behavior. /s

  21. 21.

    bluefoot

    @PaulWartenberg: they don’t have to admit it if investigation can prove it.  If Comgressional Republicans provided support, then we put them on trial and throw them in jail or execute them for treason.

  22. 22.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Mai Naem mobile: I mean like everybody knows each other in WVa right?

    No no no – everybody is related to everyone else in WV.

    (Central question on WV Bar Exam: If a WV man and WV woman get married and then get divorced, are they still brother and sister?)

    You laugh (at least I hope you laugh) but swaretaDog, one of my very best friends married a WV girl many years back – & after their divorce, when she remarried it was to her first cousin.

    (signed) Son of WV Refugees With Many Cousins Still Back In “The Sticks”​​​

  23. 23.

    Tom Levenson

    @E.: Prediction is hard, especially about the future, but I note that the second linked article says that authorities haven’t determent yet whether or not the bear spray contributed to the officer’s death.

    Felony murder charges can still be filed, is what I’m saying.

  24. 24.

    Ken

    @JPL: That’s good news, and I hope that they continue rounding up the white supremacists. OT how are the ducks?

    Balloon Juice, where the full services we provide include occasional bouts of whiplash.

  25. 25.

    Ken

    @Uncle Cosmo: one of my very best friends married a WV girl many years back – & after their divorce, when she remarried it was to her first cousin.

    So she’d tried marrying one of those foreigners from more than 50 miles away, and when that didn’t work out (just like her parents had warned her), she went back to the traditions that had worked so well for centuries, and married a local boy?

  26. 26.

    Citizen Alan

    @Redshift: ​ 

    It is a testament to how much damage living in Trump’s America has done to my soul that I have reconsidered my once total opposition to capital punishment. I make an exception for violent insurrections.

  27. 27.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Mai Naem mobile:

    Weat Virginia Greeks aren’t like city Greeks – they’ll out-wingnut your most virulent wingnut, in my experience.

  28. 28.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Citizen Alan: I hear you, and that’s my inclination. But it is all too easy to imagine how it would be applied to POC simply and non-violently exercising First Amendment rights.

  29. 29.

    Sebastian

    @Citizen Alan:

    I am ok with them walking from Washington DC to Arizona and if some tears are shed during that, whatchamacallit, trail perhaps? and some stragglers shot by the side of the road … ah well, gotta break eggs and all.

    Also, how about we reuse Sheriff Arpaio’s tent camps and the first one to rat out the rest gets half a cup of water.

  30. 30.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    I’ll add this – the other dude is probably a Pennsyltucky Leb/Syrian – those guys are ALSO rabid wingnuts. They just happen to go to Situ’s (grandma’s) house for kibbee, tabouleh and baklawa every couple of months.

  32. 32.

    Cameron

    I normally try to promote restorative justice, but I’m not sure that works with these folks.  If they don’t get stepped on hard, they’ll assume they can get away with sedition.  And they wouldn’t necessarily be wrong, since it appears that more than a few people in police or military uniforms agree with them.

  33. 33.

    Cermet

    @Ken: I believe that 26 States allow first cousins to marry so, WVA isn’t exactly and outlier in this regards.

  34. 34.

    Spanky

    @Tom Levenson: Two thousand years from now, little will be remembered of our culture, except for the quotations of our foremost philosopher, Yogi Berra.

  35. 35.

    FridayNext

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    It’s actually quite a venerable tradition among wealthy white folks. FDR, Einstein, Darwin, David Lean, HG Welles, Poe, and a gaggle of royal folks married cousins. Even Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgewick are, like, 9th cousins or some such.

  37. 37.

    Brachiator

    Breaking WaPo: U.S. authorities have arrested and charged two men with assaulting U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick with bear spray during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

    Where possible, it should be emphasized that the attack on the Capitol and the Capitol police was not just a political stunt or misunderstanding or prank.

  38. 38.

    Ken

    @Cermet: Sorry, I didn’t mean to single out WV; more the attitudes that keep so many young people trapped in their home town with few prospects.

  39. 39.

    E.

    @Tom Levenson: With felony murder it doesn’t matter if the bear spray actually contributed to the death, only that the death occurred and was foreseeable from the commission of the felony, which is assault on a police officer.

    My favorite case is the news helicopter that crashes while filming a black guy fleeing police. Bingo, felony murder. Shoulda known a news helicopter might crash when you went for your joyride.

  40. 40.

    cain

    Can’t for these men to be outed as antifa to the chagrin of their friends. That’ll probably just add indignity to the whole affair. They’re house is probably festooned with blue lives matter flags too.

  41. 41.

    CraigM

    @Citizen Alan: I have had the exact same thoughts about capital punishment, but I keep coming back to two things – first, whether an action is right or wrong doesn’t depend on my personal distaste or antipathy toward the person being punished, and second, our long history of killing people because they are so damned awful has not ever been effective in reducing the percentage of assholes among us.

  42. 42.

    citizen dave

    You guys made me think of the great “second cousins” verse in Choctaw Bingo.

    Re: Vaccine proof to fly, the U.S. industry last week asked the Biden administration to create something: https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2021/03/09/covid-travel-airlines-ask-biden-create-standardized-documentation/4641104001/

    Maybe tie it to Pre-Check or something?  Was wondering the other day how I proved vaccinations for Cambodia and Vietnam, and realized I sent the proof to the people getting me my visa.  Seems like this is going to be a big job, verifying millions of travelers’ vaccinations.

  43. 43.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @raven:

    Its got the classics for Greek guys in the hinterland – gyros and falafel.

    Didn’t check for dessert – baklava is kind of a sonofabitch to make.

  44. 44.

    Spanky

    Juicer Jennifer Rubin channels us all again:

    Opinion: Want a formal presidential news conference? Reporters need better questions.

  45. 45.

    Another Scott

    @Tom Levenson: Made me look. CriminalDefenseLawyer.com:

    Not Your Average Murder

    Unlike most murder charges, felony murder doesn’t require the intent to kill, only:

    * the intent to commit the underlying felony (the “predicate felony”), and
    * that someone died as a result of the felony.

    If more than one person participates in the felony, all involved are equally responsible, even those who didn’t cause the death. In some cases, even those who weren’t present when the death occurred are responsible.

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  46. 46.

    Mike in NC

    Patiently awaiting the arrest of the GQP folks who encouraged/assisted the mob in trashing the Capitol. Cruz, Hawley, Boebert, Greene, Gosar, etc.

  47. 47.

    scav

    The shock some people are going to get when they discover they don’t get to grade their own patriotism (or racism, or adherence to law).  Nor do they get to inform God that he has forgiven them.

    Well, I guess a mere mortal can dream, can’t they?

  48. 48.

    Another Scott

    ObOpenThread – KrebsOnSecurity:

    15 MAR 21

    WeLeakInfo Leaked Customer Payment Info

    A little over a year ago, the FBI and law enforcement partners overseas seized WeLeakInfo[.]com, a wildly popular service that sold access to more than 12 billion usernames and passwords stolen from thousands of hacked websites. In an ironic turn of events, a lapsed domain registration tied to WeLeakInfo let someone plunder and publish account data on 24,000 customers who paid to access the service with a credit card.

    For several years, WeLeakInfo was the largest of several services selling access to hacked passwords. Prosecutors said it had indexed, searchable information from more than 10,000 data breaches containing over 12 billion indexed records — including names, email addresses, usernames, phone numbers, and passwords for online accounts.

    […]

    Now, nearly 24,000 WeLeakInfo’s customers are finding that the personal and payment data they shared with WeLeakInfo over its five-year-run has been leaked online.

    […]

    [womp, womp]

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  50. 50.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @FridayNext: “Venerable tradition” it may be, but first-cousinhood unremoved (though it might be legal) is just a tad too genetically close for most folks’ tastes.

  51. 51.

    Roger Moore

    @Cermet:

    I believe that 26 States allow first cousins to marry so, WVA isn’t exactly and outlier in this regards.

    The question is not whether it is legal but how common it is. And it’s not just people from backwoods Appalachia who tend to marry their first cousins.  It’s common in all kinds of tight-knit communities that are either suspicious of outsiders or forbidden from marrying outside their group, like religious minorities or European royalty.

  52. 52.

    Ken

    @Another Scott: data they shared with WeLeakInfo has been leaked online.

    Definitely an early contender for this year’s “Absolute truth in advertising” prize.

  61. 61.

    Starboard Tack

    @Spanky:

    My favorite:

    During spring training, someone asked Yogi what his hat size was.

    “I don’t know. I’m not in shape yet.”

  64. 64.

    Geeno

    @geg6: It could also be a matter of taste – I would’ve loved baklava as a kid, but when I hit 30 my sweet tooth rotted out of my mouth apparently. Now even some mere fruit juices are too sweet to me.

  66. 66.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    You laugh (at least I hope you laugh) but swaretaDog, one of my very best friends married a WV girl many years back – & after their divorce, when she remarried it was to her first cousin. 

    My wife’s parents married as first cousins – in Virginia because it’s illegal in WV.

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