U.S. Capitol police officers arrive for the sentencing of Julian Khater and George Tanios, at the federal courthouse in Washington, Friday, Jan. 27, 2023. Both men joined the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Justice Department prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of seven years and six months for Khater, 34, a former business owner in State College. Tanios pleaded guilty in July to two misdemeanors.
Jose Luis Magana / AP Photo
Jose Luis Magana / AP Photo
U.S. Capitol police officers arrive for the sentencing of Julian Khater and George Tanios, at the federal courthouse in Washington, Friday, Jan. 27, 2023. Both men joined the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Justice Department prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of seven years and six months for Khater, 34, a former business owner in State College. Tanios pleaded guilty in July to two misdemeanors.
A former State College smoothie shop owner was sentenced to 80 months – more than 6 ½ years – in prison for assaulting Capitol Police officers during the Jan. 6 Capitol Attack.
The Washington Post reported that Judge Thomas F. Hogan told Khater, “There are officers who lost their lives, there’s officers who committed suicide after this, there’s officers who can’t go back to work. Your actions … are inexcusable.”
Khater said in court he traveled to Washington, D.C. to attend former president Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally at the White House.
Khater said he received a canister of pepper spray before the trip from co-defendant George Tanios, who also brought bear spray to the rally for “protection.” Judge Hogan sentenced Tanios to time served.
Khater and Tanios subsequently followed protesters to the Capitol.
“[Tanios] didn’t want to go. I convinced him to go,” Khater told the FBI in a video released last year. “It all kind of happened in the heat of the moment.”
Khater, a New Jersey native, was seen on video telling Tanios to give him “that bear sh*t,” and then walked over to a bike rack barrier and sprayed officers.
One of them was 42-year-old officer Brian Sicknick.
Sicknick suffered two strokes later that night and died the next day of natural causes, according to Washington, D.C.’s Chief Medical Examiner Francisco J. Diaz.
Diaz found no evidence that Sicknick suffered any injuries, nor an allergic reaction to the chemicals Khater sprayed at him, but he told the Washington Post he believed “all that transpired” during the Capitol Attack played a role in Sicknick’s death.
“This does not change the fact Officer Sicknick died in the line of duty, courageously defending Congress and the Capitol,” Capitol Police wrote in a statement accepting the examiner’s findings.
Before Friday’s hearing, Sicknick’s family members sent letters to the federal judge ruling on the case and requested the maximum sentence.
Sicknick’s parents and longtime partner attended the trial, along with at least a dozen Capitol Police officers.
At least 76 Pennsylvanians are among the nearly 1,000 people who have been arrested for participating in the violent attack on the Capitol.brod
The figure is second highest of any state in the country, behind only Florida.
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