Stoneage Ramblings

By John R. Stone

A reader recently wondered what kind of research led to a column from August,  2021 about the Jan. 6 events at the U.S. Capitol that said that “five people’s deaths, two of them police officers  have been attributed to the event.”

Actually the deaths were recorded by Capitol Police and connected to the event by those police on Jan. 6, 2021. Here are the first four:

•Ashli Babbit was shot by a Capitol Police officer while attempting to breach the House Chambers. The department investigated the shooting and determined the officer was doing his duty protecting people in the Speaker’s Lobby.

•Kevin D. Greeson, a rally attendee and Donald J. Trump supporter, died of a heart attack on Capitol grounds.

•Rosanne Boyland was crushed in a stampede of rioters as they pushed police back. She later made it into the Capitol. A subsequent autopsy reported she had amphetamines in her system at the time and listed an overdose as the cause of death.

•Benjamin Philips, founder of the pro-Trump website Trumparoo, died of cardiovascular disease on Capitol grounds.

On Jan. 7, Bryan Sicknick, a Capitol Police Officer, after being gassed and beaten in the riot around the Capitol Jan. 6, died after a series of strokes. His death has been attributed the event as a death in the line of duty and the medical examiner said the gassing and beating were contributing factors. The deaths mentioned above have been mentioned by the New York Times, Washington Post, AP, USA Today , CNN, and many more.

•Jeffery Smith, a Metropolitan Police Officer, was struck in the head Jan. 6, started behaving erratically afterwards according to family, and died by suicide Jan. 14 after being ordered back to work.

•Howard S. Liebengood, a Capitol Police Officer, died of suicide four days after Jan. 6 after working nearly all day and night without much rest through Jan. 9 to protect the Capitol. He died Jan. 9.

The deaths of both Smith and Liebengood have since been officially declared in the line of duty by the Capitol Police Department for events on Jan. 6.

Two more police officers, Gunther Hashida and Kyle De Freytag died in July after the event via suicide. There is no mention I have found that their deaths are related to Jan. 6.

Because the deaths of Sicknick, Smith and Leibengood have been determined to be duty related their families will receive pension benefits.

FOX News mentioned the deaths of Babbitt and Sicknick and Liebengood. It also mentioned that “several people died during or in connection with the siege.”

One might even consider one more death, that of Lauren A. Wegner, 35, in Illinois last November. Shane J. Woods pleaded guilty to illegal actions at the Capitol on Jan. 6. According to the Chicago Tribune he decided to commit suicide prior to his sentencing which was scheduled for Jan. 23, 2023.

Woods got drunk and drove his car at a high speed apparently to kill himself in a car crash. However, he ran into the vehicle Wegner was in. He now faces felony charges for her death.

In January the U.S. Congress offered Congressional Gold Medals to those in the Capitol Police Department for their work on Jan. 6. The motion to do so passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 406-21, meaning a majority of Republicans and Democrats supported it. The motion passed the Senate by unanimous consent. Sicknick, Smith and Liebengood were all mentioned by name in the motion and cited as heroes.

The resolution making the award used the word “insurrection.” Some news outlets reported that the use of that word was why 21 Republican Congress members voted against it. As for the term “insurrection,” my Merriam-Webster Dictionary describes that as “an act or instance of revolting against civil authority or established government.”

So seven people are dead, maybe more such as Wegner, all connected one way or another to the Jan. 6, 2021 breach of the Capitol in Washington D.C.