RICHMOND, Va. -- Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has ordered all U.S. and Virginia flags in the state to be flown at half-staff Monday in remembrance of the Capitol Police officer who died of injuries sustained during the riot at the Capitol.
Northam said officer Brian Sicknick lived in Fairfax County.
"I hereby order that the flags shall be lowered at sunrise on Monday, January 11, 2021, and remain at half-staff until sunset," Northam wrote Sunday.
I am ordering all U.S. and Virginia flags to be flown at half-staff on Monday, January 11 in honor of U.S. Capitol Police Officer and Fairfax County resident Brian D. Sicknick, who died as a result of injuries sustained while defending the U.S. Capitol.https://t.co/HJSkopumht
— Ralph Northam (@GovernorVA) January 10, 2021
Family honors slain 'hero' Capitol Police officer
From his early days growing up in a New Jersey hamlet, Brian Sicknick wanted to be a police officer.
He enlisted in the National Guard six months after graduating high school in 1997, deploying to Saudi Arabia and then Kyrgyzstan.
Joining the Guard was his means to joining law enforcement. He would join the U.S. Capitol Police in 2008, where he served until his death Thursday after being attacked as rioters seething over President Donald Trump’s election loss stormed the U.S. Capitol.
Sicknick's brother, Ken Sicknick, issued a statement through a family spokeswoman Friday.
“Brian is a hero and that is what we would like people to remember,” a statement from the family reads.
His family said it did not want to make Sicknick’s death a “political issue” as many questions remain about what happened.
The mayor of the town where he grew up says Sicknick's brother told him, “Brian did his job.”
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