Family of Officer Killed After Jan. 6 Capitol Riot Slams Tucker Carlson: 'Rip Our Wounds Wide Open Again'

Samuel Corum/Getty Rioters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021

The family of a U.S. Capitol police officer who died of a series of strokes one day after being assaulted during the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol is slamming Tucker Carlson after the Fox News host aired footage of the riots and said the narrative surrounding the officer's death was "a lie."

The family of fallen officer Brian Sicknick issued their statement hours after Carlson claimed on his broadcast: "To this day, media accounts describe Sicknick as someone who was 'slain' on January 6th. The video we reviewed proves that is a lie."

Carlson then aired portions of surveillance footage that show Sicknick walking in the Capitol after the attack took place.

As has been widely reported, 42-year-old Sicknick died one day after the riots, during which he was pepper-sprayed directly in the face (the man who attacked him and other officers was sentenced to 80 months in prison earlier this year).

Sicknick's official cause of death was "acute brainstem and cerebellar infarcts due to acute basilar artery thrombosis," according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

Medical examiner Francisco J. Diaz previously earlier told The Washington Post that Sicknick suffered two strokes that had been caused by a blood clot. He added that the officer died of "natural causes," but that "all that transpired" on the day of the insurrection "played a role in his condition."

In a statement issued after Carlson made his claims on Fox News, Sicknick's family said they were "outraged at the ongoing attack on our family by the unscrupulous and outright sleazy so-called news network of Fox News," which it accused of doing "the bidding of Trump or any of his sycophant followers, no matter what damage is done to the families of the fallen, the officers who put their lives on the line, and all who suffered on Jan 6th."

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The family added: "On video, Officer Sicknick looks like he managed to shake off the chemical irritants and resume his duties. That he did, but his sense of duty and incredible work ethic were the driving force which sent him back in spite of his injuries and no doubt contributed to his succumbing to his injuries the following day."

"Every time the pain of that day seems to have ebbed a bit, organizations like Fox rip our wounds wide open again and we are frankly sick of it. Leave us the hell alone," the statement continued."

RELATED: Brian Sicknick, Capitol Police Officer Who Died During Riots, Will Lie in Honor in Rotunda

The footage being aired by Carlson was given to the network by Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who provided Fox News with some 40,000 hours of surveillance footage from that day, as Carlson works to reframe the narrative surrounding the events.

McCarthy, when asked why he provided footage exclusively to Carlson, has accused other networks of being "jealous," saying: "People like exclusives, and Tucker is someone that's been asking for it. So I let him come in and see it, but everyone's going to get it."

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Carlson has publicly argued that the violent riots — which have spurred multiple investigations and during which four other people died — were little more than a peaceful protest by "ordinary and meek" Trump supporters, whom he has described as "sightseers."

But privately, according to text and email conversations obtained during legal proceedings, Carlson has been harshly critical of Trump, particularly in the hours after the riots.

Hours after the violent mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol that day, Carlson text-messaged a colleague that the then-president was "a demonic force, a destroyer."