From News Nation:
“Prosecutors: No charges for
officer in Capitol riot shooting”
Federal prosecutors will not
charge a police officer who shot and killed a woman as she climbed through the
broken part of a door during the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Authorities
had considered for months whether criminal charges were appropriate for the
Capitol Police officer who fatally shot Ashli Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force
veteran from San Diego. The Justice Department’s decision, though expected,
officially closes out the investigation. Prosecutors said they had reviewed
video of the shooting, along with statements from the officer-involved and
other officers and witnesses, examined physical evidence from the scene and
reviewed the autopsy results. “Based on that investigation, officials
determined that there is insufficient evidence to support a criminal
prosecution,” the department said in a statement. Video clips posted online
depict Babbitt, wearing a stars and stripes backpack, stepping up and beginning
to go through the waist-high opening of an area of the Capitol known as the
Speaker’s Lobby when a gunshot is heard. She falls backward. Another video
shows other unidentified people attempting to lift Babbitt up. She can be seen
slumping back to the ground.
Mark Schamel, a lawyer for the
officer, a lieutenant whose name was not released by the Justice Department,
said that the decision to not bring charges was “the only correct conclusion”
and that his client had “saved the lives of countless members of Congress and
the rioters.” Prosecutors said Babbitt was part of the mob that was trying to
get into the House as Capitol Police officers were evacuating members of
Congress from the chamber. The officers used furniture to try to barricade the glass
doors separating the hallway from the Speaker’s Lobby to try to stave off the
rioters, who kept trying to break through those doors, smashing the glass with
flagpoles, helmets and other objects. At the same time, Babbitt tried climbing
through one of the doors where the glass was broken out. A Capitol Police
officer inside the Speaker’s Lobby then fired a single round from his service
weapon, striking Babbitt in the shoulder, prosecutors said. She fell to the
ground before a police tactical team rushed into the area and gave first aid.
Babbitt was later pronounced dead at a hospital. Babbitt is one of five people
who died in or outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, including a police officer. Three
other people died of medical emergencies. The Justice Department does not bring
criminal charges in most police shootings it investigates in part because of
the high burden for prosecution. Criminal charges were not expected in this
case because videos of the shooting show Babbitt encroaching into a prohibited
space, and second-guessing the actions of an officer during the violent and
chaotic day would have been a challenge. “Specifically, the investigation
revealed no evidence to establish that, at the time the officer fired a single
shot at Ms. Babbitt, the officer did not reasonably believe that it was
necessary to do so in self-defense or in defense of the Members of Congress and
others evacuating the House Chamber,” prosecutors said.
^ The officer who shot and killed
Babbitt is a hero who needs to be honored and remembered. They took their oath
to protect the United States seriously while Babbitt and the hundreds of others
like her are American Traitors in every single sense of the word. ^
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.