Former State College Business Owner Charged with Assault of Police Officer Who Died after Capitol Riot

A former State College business owner and resident is one of two men accused of assaulting U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick with bear spray during the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.

Sicknick died a day later, though federal authorities have not yet determined if a chemical spray was the cause of his death.

Julian Elie Khater, the 32-year-old former co-owner of Frutta Bowls in State College, and 39-year-old George Pierre Tanios, of Morgantown, West Virginia, were arrested by FBI agents on Sunday and expected to appear in U.S District Court for the District of Columbia on Monday.

According to the criminal complaint, surveillance footage showed Khater and Tanios working together to spray law enforcement officers in the face with a chemical substance. The deployment allegedly was timed “to coincide with other rioters’ efforts to forcibly remove the bike rack barriers that were preventing the rioters from moving closer to the Capitol building,” as a mob of supporters of former President Donald Trump sought to disrupt Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s presidential election win.

Khater and Tanios were allegedly observed walking toward the Lower West Terrace where Khater said “Give me that bear sh–,” and reached into Tanios’s backpack, according to the complaint. Khater then told Tanios he had just been sprayed.

An agent wrote that Khater walked to the bike racks where officers, including Sicknick, were standing. As other rioters began pulling on the racks, Khater allegedly discharged a canister in the face of Sicknick and two other officers.

Two of the officers described the spray “as a substance as strong as, if not stronger than, any version of pepper spray they had been exposed to during their training as law enforcement officers,” according to the complaint. All three were incapacitated for more than 20 minutes.

Investigators initially believed Sicknick, 42, had been struck in the head with a fire extinguisher based on statements collected early in the investigation, according to the Associated Press, but now believe he may have ingested a chemical substance that contributed to his death.

According to the Washington Post, investigators determined Sicknick did not die of blunt force trauma. No autopsy has been made public.

Khater and Tanios are charged with assaulting the three officers with a deadly or dangerous weapon; conspiracy to injure an officer; civil disorder; obstruction of an official proceeding; physical violence on restricted grounds while carrying a dangerous weapon and resulting in significant bodily injury; violent entry, disorderly conduct and act of physical violence on Capitol Grounds; and aiding and abetting.

According to an unsealed warrant, Khater was arrested on Sunday in Newark, New Jersey. He was identified by a tipster who recognized Khater as a former co-worker named “Julian” from a State College food establishment.

Khater was co-owner of the Frutta Bowls franchise location that opened in March 2019 at 262 E. Beaver Ave. and closed last spring. He previously owned another Frutta Bowls franchise location in North Carolina.

Public address records and a social media profile indicate Khater no longer lives in State College.

One other person with ties to State College was previously charged in connection with the riot. Brian Gunderson, a 26-year-old State College resident, was charged in January with unlawfully entering a restricted building, engaging in disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds to impede government business, disorderly conduct in the Capitol and demonstrating in the Capitol buildings.