“My husband died protecting Congress, the Capitol and the people of this great country. “Instead, we have been stigmatized, had our health insurance taken, denied even the courtesy of an official burial,” she wrote. She also said the families of fallen officers who die from silent injuries must be given assistance, and decried how families have been treated. Their service needs to be respected,” Smith wrote. “These officers need to be recognized for the horrors they have seen and protected us from. 6 were the direct cause of her husband’s death. The police department announced in late January that Jeffrey Smith had died by suicide, becoming the second officer to die in such a way.Įrin Smith said medical experts, including the former chief medical examiner in D.C., have told her that the events of Jan. government, and other departments and governments around the country to recognize that silent injuries, these deaths, even when at a police officer’s own hand, are a direct result of the job they have been doing,” she continued. “It’s time for the mayor, the Metropolitan Police Department, the D.C. “My husband is gone, and the District of Columbia government, so far, has taken the position that for some reason, because my husband’s injuries were emotional, invisible, he didn’t die in the line of duty,” Smith wrote. 6 attack on the Capitol is calling for authorities to recognize her husband as dying “in the line of duty.”Įrin Smith, whose husband Jeffrey Smith died just weeks after the Capitol riot, penned an op-ed in USA Today on Sunday to encourage officials to recognize “silent injuries,” including suicides, as casualties in the line of duty. “The immediate fiscal impact is still being calculated.The widow of a Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department officer who died by suicide after responding to the Jan. “The costs for this insurrection - both human and monetary - will be steep,” Contee said. MPD’s estimate for the response totals about $8.8 million, he said. “Many more sustained injuries from the assault - scratches, bruises, eyes burning from bear mace - that they did not even bother to report,” he said. It wasn’t until the building was overrun by a pro-Trump mob the panel relented, an hour after another plea was made.Īppropriators left the briefing with a number of questions - chiefly, that intelligence agencies had “ample evidence an angry mob would descend on Washington” and they failed to “act on this intelligence or adequately prepare for the looming threat,” House Appropriations Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) said in a statement after the briefing.Ĭontee told appropriators that about 850 MPD officers responded to the riot and 65 members sustained documented injuries. 4 for additional support from the National Guard. Pittman also admitted that the Capitol Police Board denied a request on Jan. Capitol Police, said the department was outmanned and unprepared for the attack. Lawmakers heard from law enforcement officials for the first time about the Capitol security breaches during the briefing with the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, when Yogananda D. But lawmakers are also deep into an investigation into the many security lapses that left so many Capitol Police and MPD officers outnumbered and vulnerable to attack by the mob. 6, with the Senate in the early stages of an impeachment trial against former President Donald Trump. Five people died as a result of the riots, and two officers later died by suicide - a death toll that has horrified lawmakers of both parties and led them to demand answers from Capitol security officials.Ĭongress is still grappling with the political ramifications of the events of Jan. The report of an additional officer’s death once again shook Capitol Hill, where many members and staff are still reeling in the three weeks since the insurrection. “We honor the service and sacrifices of Officers Brian Sicknick, Howard Liebengood, and Jeffery Smith, and offer condolences to all the grieving families,” Contee said in his testimony. A third member of law enforcement, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, died from injuries he sustained during the Capitol attack.
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