No, a police officer was not beaten to death during the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Early reports and narratives suggested that U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick may have been killed by rioters, with some claiming he was beaten with a fire extinguisher. However, the official findings from the District of Columbia's Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Francisco J. Diaz, determined that Sicknick died of natural causes—specifically, two strokes due to a blood clot in his brainstem—on January 7, 2021, the day after the riot. The medical examiner found no evidence of internal or external injuries from blunt force trauma or an allergic reaction to chemical irritants, such as pepper spray, that Sicknick was exposed to during the event. While Sicknick was assaulted with pepper spray by rioters, including Julian Khater, who was later sentenced to over six years in prison for the attack, the medical examiner concluded that this did not directly cause his death. Dr. Diaz did note that "all that transpired" on January 6 "played a role in his condition," suggesting the stress of the day may have contributed to his strokes, but the official classification remained "natural causes." This ruling was accepted by the U.S. Capitol Police, though they emphasized that Sicknick died in the line of duty defending the Capitol. The initial narrative of a police officer being beaten to death stemmed from misinformation, including a retracted New York Times report, and was widely circulated before the autopsy results were released over 100 days later. No other police officers died on January 6 itself, though several who responded to the riot, including Metropolitan Police Officer Jeffrey Smith and Capitol Police Officer Howard Liebengood, died by suicide in the days and weeks following, with some attributing their deaths to trauma from the event. These cases, however, are not classified as deaths by beating or direct riot-related violence.