Suicide by officer following January 6 determined to be a line-of-duty death

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August 20, 2023

According to the Washington Post, the suicide of a police officer following the riot on Capitol Hill was determined by the Department of Justice (DOJ) last week to be a line-of-duty death.

The move comes even as the White House has spent years attempting to portray officers lost to post-January 6 suicides as having been killed by rioters.

Widow eligible for benefits

Under the DOJ's designation, the widow of Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Jeffrey Smith, Erin Smith, will gain "access to hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal benefits."

The U.S. Department of Justice has designated the death of D.C. police officer Jeffrey Smith — who took his own life after helping defend the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot — as having occurred in the line of duty, according to the family’s attorney. https://t.co/5JY0MfO63e

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 19, 2023

The decision, which came on Thursday, was made under the Public Safety Officer Support Act of 2022, a piece of legislation that Mrs. Smith fought to pass.

"I could have given up. But I did not want any future widow, or widower, to ever go through what I went through in the aftermath of Jeffrey’s death," she was quoted as saying.

The attorney calls for Smith to be inurned at Arlington National Cemetery

The Post noted that the D.C. Police and Firefighters Retirement and Relief Board had already determined that Smith died in the line of duty, thus securing a full pension for his widow.

David Weber is Mrs. Smith's attorney, and he is calling for Smith to be inurned at Arlington National Cemetery next to U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick.

Sicknick, who died a day after January 6, was displayed in the Capitol Rotunda. The officer was found to have died of a stroke despite previous reports that he had been beaten to death.

What's more, Weber also asked that the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund Board of Directors add Smith's name to its memorial for officers killed in the line of duty.

"It is time to remove the stigma suffered by Mrs. Smith and all the future widows and widowers who have lost their loved ones to their law enforcement duties," Weber declared.

Biden blamed murder by Nation of Islam supporter on "sick insurrectionists"

Although no officers were murdered on January 6, President Joe Biden has implied that officers who were later lost to suicide actually died during the unrest.

While marking the event's second anniversary he said, "These people and the people representing those who couldn't be here because they gave their lives for this did, is incredibly consequential. That's not political talk. That's historical fact."

What's more, Fox News reported that Biden attributed the murder of Capitol Police Officer William Evans to "sick insurrectionists." In reality, Evans was killed months after January 6 by a Nation of Islam supporter.