A civil trial opened on Monday in Washington, D.C., where the widow of a Jan. 6 police officer who died by suicide — after suffering from a “brain injury” and “severe depression” that she says was the result of defending the Capitol — is suing a pair of demonstrators who allegedly caused it.

“My client is still living with the events of that,” attorney Richard Link told jurors, in reference to his client Erin Smith, widow of Metropolitan Police Officer Jeffrey Smith. The officer died by suicide just nine days after he was allegedly attacked by Dr. David Walls-Kaufman, who joined thousands of others to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“Time stood still,” Link said about Erin Smith”s feelings on the day Jeffrey died, according to The Associated Press.

“I told him I loved him, said I would see him when he got home,” Erin Smith later testified.

Love true crime? Sign up for our newsletter, The Law&Crime Docket, to get the latest real-life crime stories delivered right to your inbox.

Jeffrey Smith used his service weapon to take his life while on the way to work, his wife says.

Defendants Taylor Taranto and Walls-Kaufman, both of Washington state, are facing a wrongful-death lawsuit that Smith’s lawyers filed in August 2021.

During the Jan. 6 riot, Jeffrey Smith was allegedly struck in the face by a metal tactical “cane” that Walls-Kaufman — a D.C. chiropractor — was wielding that day, according to Smith’s complaint. Taranto is accused of giving Walls-Kaufman the cane.

“Kaufman was part of the insurrectionist mob inside the US Capitol and was being escorted out of the building by MPD officers,” the complaint says. “Co-Defendant Taranto handed a cane or crowbar (or similar object) to Kaufman. Kaufman, in turn, violently swung the cane and struck Officer Smith in the face/head.”

Erin Smith’s filing describes the attack as a violent crime of opportunity, with her husband being “in a particularly vulnerable situation because his face shield was up — “leaving his face and eyes exposed.” She says Kaufman and Taranto “specifically and maliciously targeted Officer Smith” because his visor was in the upright position, making him vulnerable to the “brutal and vicious attack,” the complaint charges.

“As a direct and proximate result of the intentional assault … which, in turn, caused Smith’s death, Erin Smith sustained pecuniary loss, mental anguish, emotional pain and suffering, loss of society, loss of companionship, loss of comfort of protection, loss of marital care, loss of filial care, loss of attention, loss of advice, loss of counsel, loss of training, loss of guidance and loss of consortium,” her lawyers allege.

Erin Smith told jurors Monday that finding out Jeffrey shot himself with his service revolver was “the most traumatic words I’ve ever heard,” according to AP.

“You just don’t know what to do,” she said.