Internal DC Metro police documents – over 500 pages – reveal Babbitt shooting was for “no good reason”
Source: Law Enforcement Today
Date: 10/14/2021
WASHINGTON, DC- In normal times, this would serve as a “bombshell,” a “blockbuster.” Of course since it doesn’t meet the preferred narrative, it will largely be ignored by the mainstream media, which is a disservice to the American people. What exactly is “this?”
According to Fox News, Judicial Watch has obtained over 500 pages of internal documents from the DC Metro Police over the fatal shooting of unarmed Ashli Babbitt on January 6 during the US Capitol siege.
According to eyewitness accounts, they reveal that Babbitt was unarmed at the time she was shot to death and the officer who killed her—Lt. Michael Byrd of the US Capitol Police—was visibly upset after he shot her to death.
“These previously secret records show there was no good reason to shoot and kill Ashli Babbitt,” said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch.
The documents were received pursuant to a May 2021 FOIA lawsuit filed by the organization.
“The Biden-Garland Justice Department and the Pelosi Congress have much to answer for over the mishandling and cover-up of this scandalous killing of an American citizen by the U.S. Capitol Police.”
Babbitt, a veteran of the United States Air Force, was shot to death during the storming of the Capitol by Byrd as she allegedly climbed through a window into the Speaker’s lobby.
According to witnesses, the DC Metro documents revealed that Babbitt was unarmed when she was shot and also offered conflicting statements of whether Byrd verbally warned Babbitt prior to killing her.
One sergeant with the Capitol police, whose name was redacted said he saw Babbitt climbing through a broken window, but didn’t see her brandishing any type of weapon, according to documents reviewed by Judicial Watch.
“Sergeant [redacted] observed a white female protester was climbing through an opened area where the glass pane had been knocked out. He heard a gunshot and this female fell backwards through the opening. The crowd on the other side of the barricaded east doors, began to step back and some put their hands in the air.
Sergeant [redacted] observed Lieutenant Byrd step back just after hearing the gunshot. He did not see anything in the female protester’s hands prior to the gunshot,” according to the Internal Affairs Division report.
“Sergeant [redacted] never went on the other side of the barricaded east door. He also did not know that it was Lieutenant Byrd who shot his gun until he talked to him moments after it occurred. Lieutenant Byrd looked upset and stated, ‘I was the one who took the shot,’” the report continued.
A written transcript of the interview with the sergeant noted that he wasn’t sure “if something happened to” Byrd which “caused him to take the shot or not.”
“Uh, I saw Lieutenant Byrd kinda, I don’t know if it was before or after. Cause I was trying to figure this out of, but there was at one point where I remember seeing him and he kind of went like this and then came back up again.
Uh, I don’t know if that was from him taking the shot and then stepping back from that shot or if it was before that, I can’t, no matter how I tried to rack my brain, I can’t, I can’t figure out when that happened, but uh, so I don’t know if something happened to him where [sic] caused him to take the shot or not,” the written transcript states.
Continuing, the sergeant said Byrd was “visibly upset” after shooting Babbitt.
“No, his eyes were red. He was. You could see he was visibly upset and he just, you know, kind of comfort him and told him, you know, we gotta get outta here,” the transcript read.
When asked by the interviewer if he approached Babbitt after she was shot, he responded, “No, no, no. I maintained my position.”
He said that after the shooting, Byrd directed him and other officers “into the subway.”
“This was not a typical day, was it?” the interviewer asked.
“Definitely not my craziest day there,” the sergeant replied, while adding the closest similar event was “the shots fired back in 2004, 2005 in the Rayburn building…”
The interviewer then led the sergeant, asking if Jan. 6 was a “frightening experience,” whereby the sergeant replied:
“Oh yeah. I’m not afraid to say I was, I was scared shit.”
A separate interview was conducted with another Capitol police officer who was positioned directly behind Byrd in the Speaker’s Lobby when Babbitt was shot.
The summary reads, “He did not see Ms. McEntee [Babbitt] in possession of any potential weapons.”
“He reiterated that he did not observe that she was armed.”
That interviewee also confirmed that Byrd was “upset” following the shooting.
“Lieutenant Byrd was shaking, he did not say anything…Byrd was very nervous, teary-eyed, and appeared very upset. His voice [was] also shaky when he called for medical assistance over the radio. Lieutenant Byrd was still very upset,” the transcript read.
That interviewee noted that a man with a beard who was wearing a suit attended to Babbitt, however neither he nor the sergeant were able to provide the identity of that man, but believe he was with the House Sergeant-at-Arms office.
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In another report, that also indicated that a sergeant did not see a weapon in Babbitt’s hands prior to her being shot and killed. The report did note that investigators “recovered ‘a para force’ folding knife in Ms. Babbitt’s pants pocket.”
“The crowd on the outside of the previously barricaded east doors began to step back, and some raised their hands in the air. Sergeant [redacted] did not see anything in Ms. Babbitt’s hands prior to hearing the gunshot.”
Yet another report of an interview with another Capitol police officer conducted on Feb. 4 stated, “He did not hear any verbal commands” before Byrd shot Babbitt.
In a separate phone interview with a man who “reached out” to the Metro Police Department, he claimed he was in the House Chambers at the time of the interview.
This man claims he heard Byrd should “loud verbal commands” that he would “shoot” before firing at Babbitt, and also claims that Byrd fired two shots…not one.
“He was yelling, he was giving commands. Um, he was saying, I will shoot. Uh, he was saying some other stuff. I couldn’t clearly make out what he was saying, but he was definitely, uh, giving commands, no question about it,” the interviewee said according to transcripts.
“He [Byrd] did everything he could do…he was by himself; we were defending the front door and they were shaking it.”
That last statement flies in the face of video evidence, which clearly showed that first, Byrd was not even in close proximity to Babbitt and secondly he was hardly alone.
According to a DC Department of Forensic Sciences crime scene report said that Byrd turned his service weapon over to the department.
The report also said that police saw a trail of blood leading from the hallway outside the Speaker’s Lobby doors leading down to the first floor of the House.
In August, Byrd gave his first public interview detailing the events leading up to the shooting, and claimed firing his weapon was a “last resort option.”
“I tried to wait as long as I could,” Byrd said. “I hoped and prayed no one tried to enter through those doors. But their failure to comply required me to take the appropriate action to save the lives of members of Congress and myself and my fellow officers.”
The U.S. Capitol Police concluded their internal investigation some seven months after the shooting an concluded it was “lawful and within Department policy.” Under that policy, officers can use deadly force if they “reasonably believes that the action is in defense of human life.”
“If the doors were breached, the rioters would have immediate access to the House Chambers,” the U.S. Capitol Police reported on August 23.
“The actions of the officer in this case potentially saved Members and staff from serious injury and possible death from a large crowd of rioters who forced their way into the U.S. Capitol and to the House Chamber where Members and staff were steps away.”
In the interview, Byrd tried to claim he “saved countless lives.”
“I know that day I saved countless lives. I know members of Congress, as well as my fellow officers and staff, were in serious danger. And that’s my job.”
However “courageous” that may seem, there were at least three officers immediately behind Babbitt when she was shot, as well as a tactical team on the stairwell behind Babbitt. She was hardly as much of a threat as Byrd claimed.
Byrd is also the same Capitol police officer who left his loaded Glock 22 in a Capitol Visitor Center complex bathroom in February 2019, an incident for which Byrd went unpunished, according to The Federalist.
In an August interview with NBC’s Lester Holt, Byrd acknowledged leaving his weapon in the bathroom. He also said even though Babbitt was unarmed, he stood by his decision to shoot and kill an unarmed woman.
So the DC Metro Police investigation determined that Ashli Babbitt was unarmed when she was gunned down by Lt. Michael Byrd of the US Capitol Police.
If the races were reversed, and it was not a Trump supporter who was shot and killed but a Black Lives Matter protester under the exact same circumstances, mainstream media would be going ballistic. In this case, all you hear are crickets.