WASHINGTON -- The family of the slain Capitol Police officer says they want the public to remember him for being a hero.
Brian Sicknick died Thursday night of injuries sustained during the riot at the Capitol.
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His brother, Ken Sicknick, issued a statement through a family spokeswoman Friday.
From his early days growing up in a New Jersey hamlet, Brian Sicknick wanted to be a police officer.
He enlisted in the National Guard six months after graduating high school in 1997, deploying to Saudi Arabia and then Kyrgyzstan.
Joining the Guard was his means to joining law enforcement. He would join the U.S. Capitol Police in 2008, where he served until his death Thursday after being attacked as rioters seething over President Donald Trump’s election loss stormed the U.S. Capitol.
His family said it did not want to make Sicknick’s death a “political issue” as many questions remain about what happened.
“Brian is a hero and that is what we would like people to remember,” a statement from the family reads.
The mayor of the town where he grew up says Sicknick's brother told him, “Brian did his job.”
