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The DOJ has ruled that a police officer who committed suicide eight days after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol incursion actually died in the line of duty, which cleared the way for his widowed wife to receive federal benefits that are normally only given to the families of fallen officers.
Up to this point, families of officers who committed suicide were prevented from receiving such benefits, which no doubt leaves the Biden administration and Democrats open to new calls of politicizing the DOJ.
The change is in line with President Joe Biden’s latest revisions to the Public Safety Officer Support Act, according to reports. Now, certain suicides will qualify as a line-of-duty death.
The Western Journal noted further:
The revised legislation passed almost exactly a year ago, expanded disability and education benefits, and now requires the Public Safety Officers’ Benefits Program (PSOB) to “presume” that suicides are a result of job duties, as long as there is evidence of a physical injury that could result in emotional trauma.
An attorney for Erin Smith, who is the widow of Metropolitan Police Officer, told The Hill her husband is the first one to be approved under the change.
Erin Smith, the widow of a D.C. police officer who took his own life days after reporting to the Capitol on January 6, says “he was never the same” after the insurrection.
“He characterized January 6 as the worst day of his life,” she says. https://t.co/OT222AdyJu pic.twitter.com/0XN7OCs4rs
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) March 30, 2022
“It is an honor to inform you that the Public Safety Officers’ Benefits (PSOB) Office has approved your claim for death benefits,” Hope D. Janke, the director of the office, said in a letter to Erin Smith, according to NBC News. “The entire PSOB Office staff extends our condolences to you and your family, and our gratitude for Officer Smith’s public safety efforts and commitment to his community.”
NBC News added that on Jan. 6, Smith was involved in at least two altercations with rioters.
In one instance, he engaged in a physical altercation with protesters, expelling them from the Capitol building. In another, he was hit in the face by a metal pole that someone threw.
“Jeffrey’s injuries clearly caused his death,” Erin Smith said, per NBC.
“When my husband died, I was denied the line of duty benefits that he deserved,” she said in a statement to NBC News. “But I knew from the beginning that Jeffrey died in the line of duty from the injuries he suffered on January 6th.”
Her husband shot himself in his car on his way to work days after the incident, reports said.
Erin added that she “did not want any future widow, or widower, to ever go through” what she did.
“I am pleased that on the one-year anniversary of the law’s passage, Jeffrey’s death has finally been ruled to be line of duty under federal law,” she added. “We have fought so long to reach this point, first with the MPD, then with the Police and Firefighters’ Retirement and Relief Board, and now with the United States government.”
“The time has come to #smashthestigma surrounding law enforcement officer mental health, the scientific causation between brain injuries and suicide, and to acknowledge the silent injuries suffered by many heroes,” Dr. David P. Weber, one of Erin’s attorneys, said in a statement.
“It is time to remove the stigma suffered by Mrs. Smith and all the future widows and widowers who have lost their loved ones to their law enforcement duties. There can no longer be any serious debate that Police Officer Jeffrey Smith died in the line of duty,” he added.
“Today, we know he died a hero, in the line of duty,” Weber added. “But at the time, Mrs. Smith watched as other officers lay in state, while she mourned very much alone, with no support or acknowledgment from the nation or city.”
David Walls-Kaufman, who told a federal court that he “scuffled” with officers and that he put his hands on Smith’s baton inside the Capitol, was sentenced to two months in federal prison, NBC News noted.
