Tue 03 August 2021:
The police department of the United States District of Columbia has announced that two more policemen who responded to the riot at the United States Capitol on January 6 committed suicide, increasing the total number of known suicides by officers on duty at the facility that day to four.
Metropolitan Police Officer Gunther Hashida, who joined the District of Columbia’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in May 2003, was found dead in his home on Thursday, department spokesman Hugh Carew said in a statement.
“We are grieving as a department and our thoughts and prayers are with Officer Hashida’s family and friends,” the police spokesman was quoted by news reports as saying.
Another MPD officer who responded to the Capitol on January 6, Kyle DeFreytag, was found dead on July 10, Carew said. DeFreytag’s cause of death was also suicide, Carew said.
He had been with the force since November 2016.
US Capitol Police Officer Howard Liebengood and MPD Officer Jeffrey Smith also responded to the Capitol riot.
At a closed-door meeting with leaders of Congress in January, Acting Chief of Police Robert Contee III told legislators that Smith took his life “in the aftermath of that battle”.
Meanwhile, Liebengood committed suicide just three days after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in a failed attempt to prevent Congress from declaring Democratic Vice President Joe Biden’s election victory.
Four people died on a day of unprecedented violence in the US.
A Capitol police officer who had been attacked by protesters died the following day. More than 100 police officers were injured.
Four police officers testified before a House of Representatives special committee last week claimed they were beaten, threatened, taunted with racial comments, and thought they may die while defending the Capitol against the mob.
Trump has so far not publicly requested justice department protection in the case, nor has his lawyer Jesse Binnall said whether he intends to ask the department to take a position.
In a statement, Binnall said: “The Supreme Court has been clear that presidents cannot be sued for actions that are related to their duties of office. Addressing Americans about congressional action is a quintessential presidential duty.”
(with inputs from agencies)
———————————————————————————————————————-
FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:
TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent
FACEBOOK (CLICK HERE)
https://web.facebook.com/ipindependent
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
