Which U.S. Capitol Police officers died by suicide and what were their names and dates of death?
Executive summary
Four law‑enforcement officers who responded to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol later died by suicide: U.S. Capitol Police Officer Howard C. “Howie” Liebengood and three Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officers — Jeffrey L. Smith, Kyle DeFreytag, and Gunther Hashida — with reported dates of death clustered in January and July 2021 [1] [2] [3] [4]. Reporting across Reuters, Newsweek, CNBC and local outlets documents the names and timing but reflects differing detail and subsequent administrative reviews about whether some deaths would be designated line‑of‑duty [3] [1] [5] [6].
1. Howard C. “Howie” Liebengood — early January 2021
Howard C. “Howie” Liebengood, a 15‑year veteran of the U.S. Capitol Police, was the first officer publicly reported to have taken his own life in the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot; multiple outlets report his death occurred three days after the attack, which places it on or about January 9, 2021 [1] [7]. Family statements and news coverage at the time tied his death temporally to the riot and described severe sleep deprivation and trauma in the days following the siege, though early news reports were cautious about drawing definitive causal conclusions [1] [8].
2. Jeffrey L. Smith — January 15, 2021
Jeffrey L. Smith, an MPD officer who assisted U.S. Capitol Police during the attack, died by suicide on January 15, 2021, nine days after Jan. 6, according to contemporaneous reporting and later administrative findings referenced in the public record [2] [4]. Smith’s widow later pursued and secured determinations that his death was connected to his injuries and experiences from Jan. 6, illustrating how families sought official recognition for suicides linked to the event [2].
3. Kyle DeFreytag — July 2021
MPD Officer Kyle DeFreytag, who had been deployed to the Capitol on Jan. 6, was reported by the Metropolitan Police Department to have died by suicide in July 2021; one report cites his body being found on July 10, 2021, and departmental notices of his death were circulated to officers that month [3] [4]. News accounts note his role enforcing curfew violations at the Capitol that night and place his death among a cluster of later summer suicides of officers who had been at the siege [4] [9].
4. Gunther Hashida — late July 2021
Gunther Hashida, another MPD officer who responded to the Capitol, was confirmed by his family and department statements to have been found dead at his residence in late July 2021; some coverage reports the date of death as July 29, 2021 [3] [4]. Hashida’s death, announced alongside DeFreytag’s in early August coverage, brought to four the number of known police suicides of officers who had served at the Capitol on Jan. 6 [3] [10].
Context, disputes and administrative follow‑ups
News organizations uniformly reported these four names and the temporal link to the Jan. 6 response, while noting differences in department affiliation — Liebengood with the U.S. Capitol Police and Smith, DeFreytag and Hashida with the D.C. Metropolitan Police — and in how authorities treated cause‑of‑death designations and line‑of‑duty status [1] [2] [3] [6]. Some families sought official recognition that suicides were service‑connected; the federal Public Safety Officers’ Benefits program and department determinations later addressed at least one case, underscoring ongoing debates about how to classify and memorialize such deaths [2] [6]. Reporting also emphasized broader concerns about officer mental health, stigma, and the political context that shaped public and institutional responses [11] [12].
Limits of available reporting
The sources used here provide names and reported dates but vary in the level of medical, investigative or coroner detail they publish; where sources did not supply exact timings, this account relies strictly on the dates reported by Reuters, Newsweek, CNBC, MPD statements and contemporaneous local reporting [3] [1] [5] [4]. If additional official death certificates, coroner reports, or final determinations exist beyond these articles, they are not included in the referenced material and therefore not asserted here.