U.S. President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, paid their respects late Tuesday to Brian Sicknick, the U.S. Capitol Police officer who died defending the Capitol from a pro-Trump mob that stormed the building last month.
Sicknick’s remains arrived at the Capitol a short time earlier and dozens of Capitol Police officers stood at attention as his urn was carried up the steps to the Rotunda where he is lying in honor.
Capitol Police were given an opportunity to participate in a viewing period overnight.
Congressional leaders took part in the solemn arrival ceremony, and lawmakers will pay tribute to Sicknick at a Wednesday morning ceremony before his remains are taken to Arlington National Cemetery.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement last week announcing that Sicknick would lie in honor that his heroism on January 6 “helped save lives, defend the temple of our democracy and ensure that the Congress was not diverted from our duty to the Constitution.”
The U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement after the attack that Sicknick, who died the next day, was injured “while physically engaging with protesters.”
Sicknick had worked in the department since 2008.
He is only the fifth person to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda. Others given that honor are Civil Rights leader Rosa Parks, renowned televangalist the Reverend Billy Graham, and Capitol Police officers Jacob Chestnut and John Gibson, who died defending the Capitol building in a shooting attack in 1998.
