POLICE OFFICER DIES AFTER CLASHES
Shortly after amob breached the Capitol on Thursday, some in the group penetrated all the way to the Speaker’s Lobby, the hallway outside the House chamber, according to two law enforcement officials familiar with the incident.
The rioters tried to break through the lobby’s elaborate glass and wood doors, which had been hastily barricadedwith chairs and other furniture, the officials said. Ashli Babbitt, wearing a Trump flag as a cape, tried to climb through a smashed glass pane in one of the doors.
In the chaotic scene, a US Capitol Police officer in a suit and surgical mask pointed a gun in her direction and fired a single shot, the officials said. Babbitt, a 35-year-old California native and Air Force veteran, was struck in the neck and later died. The two officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said she was unarmed.
They said a CapitolHill staffer tried to help Babbitt after she fell.
The circumstances surrounding the incident became clearer Thursday, as did the life of Babbitt, an ardent Trump supporterwho travelled across the country from her home in the San Diego area to take part in the mayhem. Babbitt on Twitter referenced QAnon conspiracy theories and pushed baseless assertions that the November election was stolen from President Donald Trump.
‘‘Nothing will stop us...they can try and try and try but the storm is here and it is descending upon DC in less than 24 hours...dark to light!’’ Babbitt tweeted the day before she died.
The Capitol police announced yesterday that the officer involved in Babbitt’s killing had been placed on administrative leave as the department and District of Columbia police investigate the shooting.
DC police probe all police shootings that occur in the city, even on federal grounds.
‘‘The violent attack on the US Capitol was unlike any I have ever experienced in my 30 years in law enforcement here in Washington, DC,’’ Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund said in a statement that came hours before itwas announced he would resign later thismonth.
House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving, Sund’s boss, also stepped down after criticism of the handling of the violence at the Capitol.
One of the three people who
died of amedical emergency during the storming of the Capitol was the founder of a proTrump social media site called Trumparoo and had co-ordinated transportation for several dozen people from Pennsylvania to Washington.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
reports that 50-year-old Benjamin Philips drove there in a van along with Trump-related memorabilia he had produced. He was aweb developer and founder of Trumparoo, a social media site for supporters of President Donald Trump.
The others to die were Kevin
Greeson, 55, of Athens, Alabama and 34-year-old Rosanne Boyland, of Kennesaw, Georgia.
Police Chief Robert Contee would only say that all three ‘‘were on the grounds of the Capitol when they experienced their medical emergencies.’’
Greeson’s family says he had a heart attack.
They described him as a supporter of Trump but denied that he condoned violence.
Officer dies
The Capitol police say an officer who was injured after responding to the riot at the Capitol has died.
Officer Brian D. Sicknick died yesterday from injuries sustained while on-duty, physically engaging with protesters at the US Capitol, the statement said.
Sicknick returned to his division office and collapsed, the report said.
He was taken to a hospital and later died. –