Capitol Police Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Morgantown Man Arrested For Assault Of Capitol Police Officer Who Died After Riots

George Tanios, a 39-year-old Morgantown resident and restaurant owner, has been arrested and charged in the assault of U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick during the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, according to federal court documents.

Tanios and Julian Khater, 32, of Pennsylvania, were arrested on Sunday. Tanios appeared virtually before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Aloi of the Northern District of West Virginia for an initial appearance.

Aloi informed Tanios of his rights and appointed two federal public defenders, Richard Walker and Beth Gross, as counsel.

Tanios is being held at Central Regional Jail after the government requested he be detained. A detention hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

“Give me that bear s–t,” Khater said to Tanios on recorded video during the Jan. 6 riots before spraying the chemical several times onto law enforcement officers, arrest papers said.

The two men are charged with nine counts, including the assault on Sicknick, who died the next day from his injuries. According to the Associated Press, investigators initially thought a fire extinguisher hit Sicknick in the head, but in recent weeks, investigators now believe he may have ingested a chemical substance.

Tanios has operated Sandwich U in Morgantown for over a decade. Tanios was identified to the FBI by a former business partner who is in a legal dispute over the reported embezzlement of $435,000 from their former business, the arrest papers said.

Authorities were able to partly identify Tanios because he was wearing a hoodie with the “Sandwich University” logo of his restaurant during the attack on the Capitol.

In his now-deleted LinkedIn profile, Tanios lists “Sandwich Nazi” under his educational experience.

Dave Mistich contributed to this report.

This story was updated at 4:17 p.m. on Monday.

State Hiring 10 to Staff Capitol Security Entrances

Ten people are being hired to staff two new security entrances to the state Capitol.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that the Division of Protective Services will initially hire five Capitol Police officers at $30,000 a year each and five part-time screeners at $15 an hour. That was part of the initial proposal to have one public entrance open year-round and another open only during legislative sessions.

The plan has been revised to keep both entrances open year-round. Lawrence Messina of the Department of Public Safety and Military Affairs says that means the part-time screeners eventually will be replaced with, or promoted to, full-time officers.

The new security measures begin Friday. Messina says the annual cost of operating the security entrances will be $732,000.

W.Va. Capitol Officer Appeals Firing Over Facebook Post

A Capitol police officer is appealing his firing over a post he made on Facebook.

The Public Employees Grievance Board has scheduled a grievance hearing for Douglas Day on June 10.

The Charleston Gazette reports that Day was fired on Feb. 6. Three days earlier, he wrote a Facebook post about a protest at the Capitol over the state’s response to a Jan. 9 chemical spill.

Day’s post said that if there any time he despised wearing a police uniform, it was during the protest.

Day tells the newspaper that no disciplinary action was taken against him during the two-and-a-half years that he worked as a Capitol officer.

Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety spokesman Lawrence Messina says the grievance process should be allowed to take its course.