Capitol Police Internal Memos Reveal No One Believed Ashli Babbit Was Armed, and No One Remembers Sergeant Byrd Issuing a Verbal Warning Before Killing Her

A righteous kill though, right?

More than 500 pages of internal documents from DC Metropolitan Police concerning the fatal shooting of Ashli Babbitt in the Capitol on Jan. 6 reveal witness accounts stating she was not holding a weapon at the time of her death and how "upset" the officer was after shooting her.

"These previously secret records show there was no good reason to shoot and kill Ashli Babbitt," stated Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, which obtained the documents through a May 2021 FOIA lawsuit. "The Biden-Garland Justice Department and the Pelosi Congress have much to answer for the over the mishandling and cover-up of this scandalous killing of an American citizen by the U.S. Capitol Police."

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A Capitol Police sergeant, whose name is redacted, described seeing Babbitt climbing through a broken window, but did not witness her holding a weapon, according to a portion of the documents received 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," the Internal Affairs Division report stated.

"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.

Note that the cops are observing the Blue Code of Silence -- no one will say she was unarmed. They'll just state it in the negative: they did not notice a weapon. Not that they affirmatively noticed no weapon.

Judicial Watch noted that in a written transcript of the interview with the sergeant, he detailed he was not sure "if something happened to" Byrd that "caused him to take the shot or not."

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The sergeant went onto describe that 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 of the interview states.

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"He did not see Ms. McEntee [Babbitt] in possession of any potential weapons," the summary report states.

"He reiterated that he did not observe that she was armed."

That interviewee also described Byrd as "upset" following the shooting.

"Lieutenant Byrd was shaking, he did not say anything…. Byrd was 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 report continued.

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"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."

Witnesses also say they did not observe any verbal warnings or commands before the shooting:

Another report on an interview with a Capitol Police officer on Feb. 4 stated, "He did not hear any verbal commands" before Babbitt was shot.

But some rando "reached out" to say oh, he definitely heard warnings.

A separate Jan. 6 phone interview with a man who "reached out" to the Metro PD, who claimed to have been in the House Chambers at the time of the shooting, contradicted the officer's Feb. 4 interview.

He said he did in fact hear Byrd shout "loud verbal commands" that he would "shoot" before firing at Babbitt. That interviewee also claimed Byrd fired twice, not once.

"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], uh, did everything he could do... He was by himself, we were defending the front door and they were shaking it."

Yeah, that's an informant. And it sounds like he was told that Byrd was in trouble for not having issued a verbal challenge before executing an unarmed woman, so Uncle G would consider it a big favor if he "reached out" and said he heard all kinds of verbal warnings.

posted by Ace at 04:10 PM

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