The family of Brian Sicknick, the police officer who died after defending the Capitol against a mob of Donald Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, slammed the former president for attending the wake of NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller, who was killed in the line of duty.
Trump attended the wake Thursday in Massapequa, Long Island, where he called Diller’s death “a sad, sad event, such a horrible thing.” He continued: “The police are the greatest people we have. There’s nothing and there’s nobody like them. And this should never happen.”
Sicknick also died from injuries he sustained in the line of duty at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 after Trump sent a mob of his supporters to the Capitol to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.
Trump never attended Sicknick’s wake or call his family, though he has called Sicknick’s killers “patriots” and “hostages.”
“He makes sure he gets his face out there. The guy’s a criminal,” Brian’s father Charles Sicknick told the New York Daily News. “He’s the reason my son is dead— because of the riot at the Capitol. He’s a publicity hound. Trump does whatever will get him votes and helps Donald Trump. There’s nothing good about this man.”
“The first one to call us was Joe Biden and he was crying on the phone,” Charles said. “The only thing Donald Trump cares about is Donald Trump.”
Sicknick’s brother Kenneth, also ripped the former president for using the officer’s death to boost his campaign.
“The fact that he states he’s law and order but he sent a mob that ultimately ended up killing my brother,” Kenneth said. “He has such a lack of self-awareness of what he does. He’s using that officer’s death as a campaign platform.”
Julian Khater, 32, of Pennsylvania and George Tanios, 39, of West Virginia were charged with assault and conspiracy to injure an officer in connection with Sicknick’s death.
Khater has been sentenced to six years in prison, while Tanios was sentenced to time served awaiting trial.
Trump saluted the Jan. 6 insurrectionists at a rally in Ohio earlier this month the “J6 Hostages’ Song,” a rendition of the National Anthem, played.
In an interview with CNN on Friday Kenneth called the stunt “disgusting”.
He continued: “I know I’m not going to change anybody’s mind. By the way, the video that came out along with those people singing the national anthem, the person who picks up the phone on a president is the very same person who assaulted my brother.”
