The case of Officer Brian Sicknick, who died sometime after the January 6th riot, has perplexed investigators and the media alike for almost two months now.

The original story, spread by a now provably false report from ABC News, was that he had been viciously beaten with a fire extinguisher. Early on, the lack of evidence for such a claim became apparent. That was confirmed about a month later when authorities revealed that the autopsy had not found any blunt force trauma. Clearly, the FBI knew that information from the very beginning, which makes it all the more odd that everything was so tightly held.

(see Tucker Carlson Lays out Some Uncomfortable Questions About the Capitol Riot)

After the revelation that the press had spread a false death story about Sicknick, reports then said that investigators were focusing on a possible reaction to pepper spray. That might end up closer to the truth if the latest news is any indication.

This per HotAir.

In a significant breakthrough in the case, investigators have now pinpointed a person seen on video of the riot who attacked several officers with bear spray, including Officer Sicknick, according to the officials. And video evidence shows that the assailant discussed attacking officers with the bear spray beforehand, one of the officials said.

The FBI has not released the name of the person they are pursuing, and it’s unclear whether they have any direct evidence that bear spray actually caused Sicknick’s death. Without that, it will be a very hard case to prosecute, especially given how much pepper spray was in the air that day from multiple sources.

But even if an unintended reaction to bear spray was the culprit, it’s still a stark departure from the original narrative that the officer was brutally murdered. If he did have a stroke or some other medical emergency many hours after being sprayed, that’s absolutely terrible, and whoever did it should face the criminal consequences. Yet, that’s still a far cry away from actually intending to kill someone.

Discussing this topic is difficult, and the intention is not to downplay a tragic event. But facts should still matter, and whether Sicknick’s death was intentional or not matters, especially when every other death on January 6th was either a known accident or the result of a police officer discharging their weapon. That doesn’t make the riot acceptable, but it does change the severity of the situation. If people were really trying to kill congressional members and overthrow the government, they didn’t seem to be trying very hard.

In short, continuing to describe the violence on January 6th as an insurrection is just nonsense, in my opinion. Some bad actors did some bad things, and they should pay the price for that, but narratives should not be made up and molded to fit the political wants of some.