New Jersey man pleads guilty to assaulting two Capitol Police officers on Jan. 6

A New Jersey man pleaded guilty on Thursday to assaulting two law enforcement officers with a dangerous weapon, causing them bodily injury during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. 

The Justice Department said in a release that 33-year-old Julian Elie Khater, from Somerset, in the northern part of the state, sprayed pepper spray at officers across a bike rack that they were using to hold rioters back and secure the Capitol’s grounds. 

He first sprayed a Capitol Police officer, identified as “Officer B.S.” in court documents, in the face. The officer turned his head away and retreated from a police line. 

Axios identified the officer as Brian Sicknick, who had two strokes and died of natural causes the day after the insurrection. 

Khater then sprayed a female Capitol Police officer, identified in court documents as “Officer C.E.,” directly in the eyes from a few feet away, the Justice Department stated. The officer dropped her head and retreated, needing another officer’s help because she could not see. 

Khater then sprayed a Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police officer, identified as “Officer D.C.,” in the face, and he retreated from the line. 

Court documents state that Khater and a co-defendant, George Pierre Tanios, traveled to D.C. together on Jan. 6, when they attended former President Trump’s rally at the Ellipse and then joined rioters on the Capitol grounds. 

Tanios had previously bought two cans of bear spray and two cans of pepper spray, giving a pepper spray container to Khater on Jan. 6. Both men were arrested on March 14, 2021, according to the release. 

Tanios pleaded guilty in July to charges of disorderly conduct and trespassing. He will be sentenced on Dec. 6 and could face up to two years in prison overall for the charges. 

Khater will be sentenced on Dec. 13 and faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for each count of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers with a dangerous weapon. Both men could also face financial penalties. 

Khater’s guilty plea comes on the same day that a former New York City Police Department officer was sentenced to 10 years in prison for using the U.S. flagpole to assault a police officer trying to hold back the rioters. The sentence is the longest that a Jan. 6 defendant has been given so far. 

The Justice Department noted in the release that more than 860 people have been arrested in almost all 50 states for crimes related to the insurrection, and more than 260 of them have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.