The family of US Capitol Police Officer Brian Schicknick, who died hours after defending the Capitol on Jan. 6, refused to shake hands with two Republican lawmakers at a ceremony on Tuesday.
The Schicknick family joined Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy at Tuesday’s ceremony to honor the hundreds of police officers who were in the Capitol on Jan. 6. (Republican-California) walked by.
McConnell held out his hand, but Sicknick’s family ignored his gesture.
“We got together and said we wouldn’t shake hands,” the late cop’s mother, Gladys Schicknick, told NBC News.
She called out Republicans in Congress who continue to support former President Trump. She met with Republican lawmakers last year to ask for a vote in favor of creating a bipartisan independent commission to investigate the Capitol attack.McConnell and McCarthy opposed the commission.The bill passed the House, but was blocked in the Senate by Republican opposition led by McConnell.
Ken Schicknick, the brother of the deceased officer, told NBC News that his refusal to shake the Republican leader’s hand at the ceremony was “obvious.”
“They keep telling big lies or at least not blaming it. It’s basically the same thing, refusing to accuse Donald Trump.”
Another brother of the deceased officer, Craig Schicknick, also called McCarthy out for initial Trump denunciations after the Capitol attack, but ultimately remained a staunch supporter of the former president. .
“I mean, they’re speaking here today in honor of the cops and what happened, but with the same token from the other side of their mouth… they support what caused the events of January 6th. , instead of blaming them,” said Craig Schicknick.
Former Metropolitan Police Department Lieutenant Mike Fannon suffered a heart attack and traumatic brain injury after being assaulted on January 6. He said he was “surprised” that McCarthy was present at the ceremony.
“In fact, I was surprised to see Kevin McCarthy show up. Fannon said in an interview on CNN that he thought he would be busy figuring out how to suspend the Constitution on behalf of former President Trump.
“That ceremony wasn’t Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell’s fault, it wasn’t their fault,” he added.
fanone separately told NBC News that members of the MPD teased him inside the rotunda during the ceremony.
“I was heckled by a member of my department,” he said. “They called me shit and mocked me as a great hero while clapping.”
Fanone, one of four officers who testified Tuesday at the House Select Committee’s first hearing, which conducted an inquiry on Jan. 6, said he was dishonored and did not participate in the ceremony. Fanone said the heckler was from the Special Operations Department.
Schicknick was given the rare distinction of lying reverently in the building’s rotunda. He was injured “while physically engaging protesters” and returned to his department’s office where he collapsed.
The chief medical examiner in Washington ruled that Sicknick died of natural causes after suffering two strokes on January 6, the day after the riots.
Last September, Capitol mobster Julian Cater appeared in virtual court before U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan and pleaded guilty to two counts of assaulting a law enforcement officer. Khater admitted to spraying the faces of two police officers with a chemical irritant.
Ryan J. Reilly, Zoe Richards When Elizabeth Sedran contributed.