A 3rd police officer who responded to the Capitol riot has died by suicide

• A third police officer dispatched to the January 6 Capitol riot died by suicide, Insider confirmed.
• Officer Gunther Hashida was assigned to DC Police's Emergency Response Team and died on July 29.
• "Our thoughts and prayers are with Officer Hashida's family and friends," DC Police said.

A third Washington, DC, police officer who responded to the riot at the US Capitol on January 6 has died by suicide, the Metropolitan Police Department confirmed.

"Officer Gunther Hashida, assigned to the Emergency Response Team within the Special Operations Division, was found deceased in his residence on Thursday, July 29," an MPD spokesperson told Insider in a statement on Monday.

Hashida joined MPD in May 2003.

"We are grieving as a Department as our thoughts and prayers are with Officer Hashida's family and friends," the spokesperson added.

CNN correspondent Whitney Wild first reported the news.

Officer Gunther Hashida died on July 29, according to a GoFundMe page his family created to cover his funeral and memorial service costs.

"In his work as an officer with the DC Metropolitan Police Department, he worked to serve and protect the public. He was a devoted and loving husband and father," a message on the family's GoFundMe page reads. "This fund will help support his memorial service and his family in the loss of his love and guidance."

Two other police officers who responded to the riot, DC Police Officer Jeffrey Smith and Capitol Police Officer Howard Liebengood, died by suicide in the month after the Capitol siege.

Multiple people died as a result of the riot on January 6, which was led by a pro-Trump mob that overpowered law enforcement and stormed the building while lawmakers were meeting to discuss and certify the results of the 2020 election.

After his loss to Joe Biden in November last year, Trump refused to concede the race and regularly made baseless and unsubstantiated claims of fraud in states that he lost.

Law enforcement who responded to the riot have previously spoken publicly about the way they were treated during the riot, amid efforts by some GOP lawmakers to downplay the incident.

"My fellow officers and I were punched, kicked, shoved, sprayed with chemical irritants, and even blinded with eye-damaging lasers," US Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell said last week at testimony before Congress.