The partner of late U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick said she holds former President Donald Trump directly accountable for the death of her partner and everybody else who died in connection to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Sandra Garza appeared on CNN after Trump again dismissed the attack during a speech in Nashville on Friday and claimed that “no person was killed except a beautiful young woman named Ashli Babbitt,” whom he said was shot for “no reason” in his opinion. (Babbitt and others were attempting to breach a barricaded door contained in the Capitol.)
A bipartisan Senate report found that a minimum of seven people had lost their lives in reference to the Jan. 6 attack, including Babbitt, Sicknick and two cops who died by suicide in the next days.
“I’m sick and bored with [Trump] attempting to downplay or outright deny that … Brian didn’t die in consequence of January 6. Because he did,” Garza said. “His explanation for death was natural. But that doesn’t mean that January 6 didn’t play a task in his death.”
Sicknick was assaulted throughout the riot, collapsed after returning to his office that day and died about eight hours later. Medical officials said he suffered two strokes and died of natural causes, but “all that transpired played a task in his condition.”
Sandra Garza the partner of fallen Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick expresses her anger to @Acosta about Trump floating pardons for insurrectionists, “I used to be so offended. He’s purposely riling these people up. That is all a game to him.” pic.twitter.com/JQSxx13aDc
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) June 18, 2022
“I think that every one of the those that died on that day and the times following, , would still be here today had it not been for Donald Trump wanting to mess with [our democracy],” Garza said.
“Donald Trump desired to step in there and play the next power ― that’s what I wish to call it ― and mess with people’s lives.”
Caroline Edwards, the primary U.S. Capitol Police officer injured within the attack, spoke on the June 9 hearing of the House committee investigating the attack, describing the scene on the day as “carnage” and an “absolute war zone.”
“[Officers] were bleeding, they were throwing up. … I saw friends with blood throughout their faces, I used to be slipping in people’s blood,” she said.
She recalled seeing Sicknick “together with his head in his hands” and searching “ghostly pale” after being hit with what prosecutors later determined was pepper spray.
The Jan. 6 committee’s hearings have laid out evidence from testimony and documents that indicate Trump and his allies intentionally lied that the 2020 election was stolen while knowing those claims to be false, ultimately inspiring a mob of Trump supporters to ransack the Capitol in an effort to stop Congress from certifying the outcomes.
