A somber scene in the Capitol Rotunda late Tuesday night as the president and first lady pay their respects to Capitol Hill police officer Brian Sicknick. He died on January 6th from injuries related to the siege on Capitol Hill. The officer was given the rare honor of lying in honor at the Capitol. The president wasn’t scheduled to visit, so it was a surprise when he left the White House just before 10 pm and made his way over the Capitol.
Biden touched Sicknick’s urn, put his hand over his chest, said a prayer, and shook his head in disbelief (watch above).
10:20 at night and President and Dr. Biden humbly paid their respects to Officer Brian Sicknick without fanfare. I will never stop appreciating how good it is to have a man who wants to be President in office.
— Fred Wellman (@FPWellman) February 3, 2021
U.S. Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick, who was killed in last month's riot, lies in honor this morning.
President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden came to pay their respects last night.@krisvancleave is on Capitol Hill with more. pic.twitter.com/mMkOcAqhM4
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) February 3, 2021
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer attended the ceremony Tuesday night as Sicknick’s urn was carried into the Capitol. Members of Congress will be visiting this morning as well. Then Sicknick’s urn will be taken to be interred at Arlington National Cemetery.
Sicknick is only the fifth person in U.S. history to lay in honor — the designation for private citizens who aren’t government or military officials — in the Capitol Rotunda… The four others who have lain in honor in the Rotunda were Capitol Police officer Jacob Chestnut and detective John Gibson who died in the line of duty from the July 1998 shooting in the Capitol; civil rights icon Rosa Parks in 2005; and the Rev. Billy Graham in 2018.
