Widow of officer who died by suicide after Capitol riot pens op-ed seeking ‘line of duty’ recognition

The widow of a Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department officer who died by suicide after responding to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol is calling for authorities to recognize her husband as dying “in the line of duty.”

Erin Smith, whose husband Jeffrey Smith died just weeks after the Capitol riot, penned an op-ed in USA Today on Sunday to encourage officials to recognize “silent injuries,” including suicides, as casualties in the line of duty.

“My husband is gone, and the District of Columbia government, so far, has taken the position that for some reason, because my husband’s injuries were emotional, invisible, he didn’t die in the line of duty,” Smith wrote.

“It’s time for the mayor, the Metropolitan Police Department, the D.C. government, and other departments and governments around the country to recognize that silent injuries, these deaths, even when at a police officer’s own hand, are a direct result of the job they have been doing,” she continued.

The police department announced in late January that Jeffrey Smith had died by suicide, becoming the second officer to die in such a way.

Erin Smith said medical experts, including the former chief medical examiner in D.C., have told her that the events of Jan. 6 were the direct cause of her husband’s death.

“These officers need to be recognized for the horrors they have seen and protected us from. Their service needs to be respected,” Smith wrote.

She also said the families of fallen officers who die from silent injuries must be given assistance, and decried how families have been treated.

“Instead, we have been stigmatized, had our health insurance taken, denied even the courtesy of an official burial,” she wrote.

“My husband died protecting Congress, the Capitol and the people of this great country. As the president said Thursday in the Rose Garden, he died protecting democracy itself,” Smith wrote.

“I know that. Anyone who reads the news knows that. The expert reports say that. It’s time the mayor and the Metropolitan Police Department acknowledge what’s obvious and treat him the same as any other officer who pins on that badge and goes to work to ‘serve and protect,’ ” she concluded.

The topic of mental health and trauma has been a chief concern among many, especially police officers, following the Jan. 6 attack.

Four officers have committed suicide since the riot.

The officers who testified before the House select committee probing the riots spoke in detail about the trauma they were left with following the riots.

Smith said her husband “became quiet and moody, sometimes testy” after responding to the riots.