The U.S. Capitol Police agency has confirmed the officer who fired the shot that killed Capitol protester Ashli Babbitt during the riot at the building on Jan. 6 will face no discipline.
NPR, while characterizing the events as an “insurrection” even though none of the hundreds arrested has been accused of insurrection, or even conspiracy, reported the department’s statement claiming the officer acted within department policy.
“After interviewing multiple witnesses and reviewing all the available evidence, including video and radio calls, the United States Capitol Police has completed the internal investigation into the fatal shooting of Ms. Ashli Babbitt, which occurred in the Speaker’s Lobby on January 6,” the agency said.
“USCP’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) determined the officer’s conduct was lawful and within Department policy, which says an officer may use deadly force only when the officer reasonably believes that action is in the defense of human life, including the officer’s own life, or in the defense of any person in immediate danger of serious physical injury.”
The Department of Justice earlier said it would let the officer go without any charges after he shot and killed the California veteran.
Both agencies refused to identify the shooter, but WND previously reported that the acting sergeant at arms of the House of Representatives inadvertently confirmed the identity.
Timothy Blodgett was testifying to Congress via remote video when he made a reference to the officer, Lt. Mike Byrd, the Gateway Pundit reported.
See the video:
In February, Roll Call reported Byrd left his service weapon in a bathroom in the Capitol Visitor Center complex where it was discovered later by another Capitol Police officer.
A source said Byrd addressed the incident at the officer roll call and said he will be “treated differently” because of his rank as a lieutenant. Roll Call said it was not clear what exactly the lieutenant meant by the comment.
Last month, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson asked Babbitt’s husband, Aaron Babbitt and Attorney Terrell Roberts, about the handgun incident, tying Byrd to the shooting without mentioning the officer’s name.
“Mr. Roberts, let me ask you, there are reports online, that’s incredible I don’t know if they’re true, that the Capitol Hill police officer who shot Ashli Babbitt, I’m not going to mention the name, was the same officer that left his loaded handgun in a public men’s room on the Capitol,” Carlson said. “Do you believe that is the officer, it seems like a very reckless person, who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt on January 6th.
“That’s my belief,” the attorney replied. “That’s my belief.”
Blodgett testified to the House Appropriations Committee on Feb. 25 as part of the investigation by Congress into the Jan. 6 riot.
President Trump repeatedly has called for the name of the officer who killed Babbitt to be released.
Paul Sperry reported at Real Clear Investigations that at a partisan panel House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told to review the day’s activities Mississippi Democrat Bennie Thompson promised to fully investigate the facts.
But, Sperry reported, “over the next 3½ hours, he and other Democrats, along with their handpicked Republican panelists and police witnesses, never mentioned the most lethal act committed that day — the fatal Capitol Police shooting of unarmed protester Ashli Babbitt. It was the only shot fired during the entire riot.
“This omission angered Babbitt’s family and a number of Republicans who maintain that the Select Committee and the Capitol Police are covering up the circumstances surrounding her death. Questions linger over the shooting, especially whether the officer who fired the fatal shot warned Babbitt to stop before he opened fire as she attempted to breach a barricaded door inside the Capitol Building,” Sperry reported.
He reported the Babbitt family lawyer, Terry Roberts, confirmed he has evidence showing the officer, a plainclothes police lieutenant, issued no warning before firing the fatal shot.
Far from warning Babbitt he would shoot, Roberts said the officer “ambushed” her from the side where she could not see he had taken up position in a hall doorway and had trained his weapon on her, Sperry reported.
The Babbitt family is working on a lawsuit against the officer.
Babbitt, 35, was fatally wounded as she attempted to climb through the broken window above a door leading to the House chamber, during the protest that escalated into vandalism.
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