Police in Washington have confirmed that a fourth office who responded to the Capitol insurrection has now died from suicide.
Officer Kyle DeFreytag, 26, was found dead on July 10, with Metropolitan Police confirming his death in a statement on Monday.
The news comes just hours after a spokesperson from MPD confirmed that another officer who was at the riots, Gunther Hashida, 43, was found dead at his home on Thursday.
With DeFreytag and Hashida included, four officers who responded to the attempted insurrection at the Capitol have now taken their own lives.
Twelve-year MPD veteran Jeffrey Smith and US Capitol Police Officer Howard Liebengood, a 16-year Capitol Police veteran, also responded to the insurrection and later died by suicide.
Smith, 35, killed himself just three days after the riot and Liebengood, 51, shot himself in his patrol car on his way to work on January 15.
The Metropolitan Police Department confirmed the deaths of DeFreytag and Hasida in a statement to Reuters on Monday.
Hashida had joined the department in 2003 and DeFreytag joined in November 2016.
On the day of the riots, DeFreytag reportedly helped crews enforce the curfew put in place after the Capitol building was breached, while Hashida was part of an Emergency Response Team within the department’s Special Operations Division.
OTHER OFFICERS TESTIFIED ABOUT PTSD AFTER RIOTS
The news comes just days after multiple officers testified about the horrific violence, racial slurs, and trauma they were subjected to when protecting the Capitol from the mob of MAGA fans on January 6.
Donald Trump‘s supporters stormed the US Capitol building in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election.
Four protesters died during the riot and one Capitol Police Officer, Brian Sicknick, suffered two strokes and died of natural causes a day after confronting the violent mob.
More than 550 people have been arrested and charged for their roles in the riots.
A number of the officers told lawmakers that they suffered both lingering physical and psychological pain – including PTSD – in the attack’s wake.
“What makes the struggle harder and more painful is to know so many of my fellow citizens, including so many of the people I put my life at risk to defend, are downplaying or outright denying what happened,” MPD Officer Michael Fanone told a House select committee.
“I feel like I went to hell and back to protect them and the people in this room.
“But too many are now telling me that hell doesn’t exist or hell actually wasn’t that bad. The indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful.”
