Capitol Officer who Worked Riot Dies of Suicide

U.S. Capitol Police officer Howard Liebengood — the son and namesake of a former Senate Sergeant-at-Arms, lobbyist and Hill staffer — took his own life on Saturday, days after the riot at the Capitol, a spokesman for his family said Monday.

Liebengood, 51, who went by “Howie,” had been an officer guarding the Capitol since 2005. The agency did not list a cause of when it announced Liebengood’s death, but a spokesman for the family confirmed Monday that he died by suicide and had been on duty at the Capitol on Wednesday, the Washington Post reports.

“His death is a tragedy that has deprived all of us a dedicated public servant,” Barry Pollack, a lawyer representing the Liebengood family, said in a statement. “His family has suffered a devastating loss and asks that they be given space to grieve in private.”