Michael Kunzelman.

A federal jury has awarded $500,000 to the widow and estate of a police officer who killed himself nine days after he helped defend the U.S. Capitol from a mob of rioters, including a man who scuffled with the officer during the attack. The eight-member jury ordered that man, David Walls-Kaufman, to pay $380,000 in punitive damages and $120,000 in compensatory damages for assaulting Metropolitan Police Officer Jeffrey Smith inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The judge presiding over the trial for his widow Erin Smith’s lawsuit dismissed her wrongful-death claim against Walls-Kaufman before jurors began deliberating.

A police officer’s widow wanted to prove that a man assaulted her husband during a mob’s attack on the U.S. Capitol and ultimately was responsible for her husband’s suicide nine days later. A jury’s verdict on Friday amounted to only a partial victory for Erin Smith in a lawsuit over her husband’s death. The jury held 69-year-old chiropractor David Walls-Kaufman liable for assaulting Metropolitan Police Officer Jeffrey Smith on Jan. 6, 2021. But the judge presiding over the trial dismissed Erin Smith’s wrongful-death claim against Walls-Kaufman before jurors began deliberating. The jury will decide whether to award any damages for the assault claim.

Nine days after he helped defend the U.S. Capitol from a mob of Trump supporters, Metropolitan Police Officer Jeffrey Smith shot and killed himself while driving to work. Over four years later, Smith’s widow is trying to prove to a jury that one of the rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, is responsible for her husband’s suicide. The trial for Erin Smith’s lawsuit against David Walls-Kaufman started Monday in Washington. It comes nearly six months after President Donald Trump used his clemency powers to erase the criminal cases against nearly 1,600 people charged in the attack. Walls-Kaufman denies assaulting or injuring Smith.