Capitol officer who shot rioter won’t be charged
Report finds agency ill-prepared for mob
WASHINGTON — 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 officially closes 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 the decision to not file 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 barricade the glass doors separating the hallway from the Speaker’s Lobby to stave off the rioters, who kept trying to break through those doors, smashing the glass with flagpoles, helmets and other objects. Separately, a blistering internal report by the U.S. Capitol Police describes a multitude of missteps that left the force unprepared for the Jan. 6 insurrection — riot shields that shattered upon impact, expired weapons that couldn’t be used, inadequate training and an intelligence division that had few set standards.
The watchdog report released internally last month before a congressional hearing today, adds to what is already known about broader security and intelligence failures that Congress has been investigating since hundreds of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters laid siege to the Capitol.
In an extensive timeline of that day, the report describes the movements of the Capitol Police as officers scrambled to evacuate lawmakers, and it details previously unknown conversations between officials as they disagreed on whether National Guard forces were necessary to back up the understaffed force. It quotes an Army official as telling then-Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund that “we don’t like the optics of the National Guard standing in a line at the Capitol” after the insurrectionists had already broken in.
Inspector General Michael A. Bolton found that the department’s deficiencies were — and remain — widespread. Equipment was
Mark Schamel, a lawyer for the officer, a lieutenant whose name was not released by the Justice Department, said the decision to not file charges was “the only correct conclusion.”
old and stored badly, leaders had failed to act on previous recommendations to improve intelligence, and there was a broad lack of current policies or procedures for the Civil Disturbance Unit, a division that existed to ensure that legislative functions of Congress were not disrupted by civil unrest or protest activity. That was what happened Jan. 6 as Trump’s supporters sought to overturn the election in his favor as Congress counted the Electoral College votes.
The Capitol Police have so far refused to publicly release the report — marked throughout as “law enforcement sensitive” — despite congressional pressure to do so. House Administration Committee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., issued a statement in March that she had been briefed on the report, along with another internal document, and that it contained “detailed and disturbing findings and important recommendations.” Bolton was expected to testify before the committee today.