The U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday that two men had been arrested and charged for assaulting Capitol police officers, one of whom died, during the Capitol riot.
Julian Elie Khater, 32, of Pennsylvania, and George Pierre Tanios, 39, of West Virginia, were arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Sunday over allegations that they worked together to spray police with chemical weapon during the riot on Jan. 6. One of the officers they attacked that day, Brian Sicknick, died on the following day.
The two men were charged with nine counts, several of them relating to violence and assaulting officers, according to the Justice Department's statement.
The charges were laid on the defendants based on a criminal complaint filed by the FBI in the D.C. District Court earlier this month saying that "Officers Sicknick, Edwards and Chapman, who are standing within a few feet of KHATER, all react, one by one, to something striking them in the face. The officers immediately retreat from the line, bring their hands to their faces and rush to find water to wash out their eyes."
The FBI document contained detailed descriptions, aided by photos captured by police's body-worn camera, of Khater and Tanios's words and conducts on Jan. 6 while they were on the Capitol Hill, joining a mob of then President Donald Trump's supporters in ransacking the Capitol building to obstruct Congress confirmation of the 2020 election results.
It's yet to be determined whether Sicknick, who the Capitol Police said "returned to his division office and collapsed" on Jan. 7 after engaging with the rioters a day earlier, died from the chemical spray attack.
