A Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol rioter who attacked law enforcement officials with pepper spray, together with one who died the following day, was sentenced to greater than six years in jail Friday.
Julian Khater, 33, was sentenced by U.S. District Decide Thomas Hogan to serve six years and eight months in jail. His co-defendant, George Tanios, was sentenced Friday to time served over two misdemeanor prices associated to his involvement within the assault.
Each males have been arrested final March for his or her roles within the assault that left a number of individuals lifeless and lots of of officers injured. Khater, a Pennsylvania resident, assaulted a number of officers with pepper spray, together with Officer Brian Sicknick, who died a day later after two strokes.
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Khater pleaded responsible final 12 months to assaulting Sicknick and Capitol Police Officer Carline Edwards with pepper spray. Khater was not charged in Sicknick’s demise however nonetheless faces a civil lawsuit from Sicknick’s fiancée, together with Tanios and former President Donald Trump, for his or her alleged roles within the officer’s demise.
Khater’s sentencing is without doubt one of the longest among the many almost 200 convicted U.S. Capitol attackers. A retired New York Police Division officer obtained the longest sentence when a decide ordered in September that he serve 10 years for his function within the assault.
Sicknick’s mother, Gladys, gave a sufferer affect assertion throughout Khater’s sentencing Friday, putting blame for her son’s demise on Khater, WUSA-TV in Washington reported.
“Did you are feeling like a vacationer, Mr. Khater, watching my son preventing for his life?” she requested.
Hogan famous that in Khater’s assertion earlier than sentencing, he didn’t apologize to the officers he assaulted.
“Your considerate assertion proper now didn’t actually embrace any apology to the officers you sprayed,” Hogan mentioned, based on WUSA. “I didn’t hear any expression or ‘sorry’ in regards to the staff of the Capitol, many who hid for his or her lives and resigned and by no means got here again to work.”