Papathanasiou told WUSA — a local Washington, DC, television news station — that the officer died. Later Thursday, the Capitol Police released a statement stating no officers had died as a result of Wednesday‘s riot.
Papathanasiou retracted his statement to WUSA and told CNN the officer was still on life support.
„He had a stroke. I think he‘s on life support. We‘ve got some misinformation on that. He‘s on life support from what I‘m hearing,“ Papathanasiou told CNN.
Officer Brian D. Sicknick died at about 9:30 p.m. on Thursday, the Capitol Police said in a statement. He had been with the agency since 2008.
Mr. Sicknick was responding to the riots on Wednesday and “was injured while physically engaging with protesters,” the agency’s statement said, although officials didn’t immediately elaborate on the nature of his injuries or how he interacted with the crowd. After sustaining the injuries, Mr. Sicknick returned to his division office, collapsed, and was taken to the hospital.