Capitol Police Cop Who Killed Ashli Babbitt Involved In "Prior Use Of Force Matter"
Judicial Watch sued the Department of Justice (DOJ) to obtain the release of a DOJ memo “declining criminal prosecution for Ashli Babbitt’s shooter” - Lt. Michael Byrd. Judicial Watch obtained records totaling 102 pages from the DOJ related to the January 6, 2021 shooting of Babbitt. Further, Judicial Watch learned that Byrd never filed a shooting incident report.
The documents also reveal that in the press release announcing the decision not to prosecute Byrd for the killing of Babbitt, the DOJ replaced the words “group” and “crowd” with the word “mob” several times.
Regarding possible closed-circuit television footage the memo notes “There are several USCP operated Closed-Circuit Television Video (CCTV) cameras inside of the United States Capitol Building. However, there were no CCTV cameras observed or located in the Speaker’s Lobby area.”
In a section of the memo titled “USCP Lieutenant Michael Byrd,” the memo notes: “He [Byrd] did not create any police reports or documents relating to the incident, and did not provide an official statement regarding use of force” though he did provide a voluntary “debrief” and walk-through of the scene with his lawyer. A footnote details that: “During the debrief of Lieutenant Byrd, he did recall writing a few sentences on an evidence bag the evening of January 6, 2021, at the request of a crime scene officer. To date, the bag has not been located by USCP or MPD.”
Judicial Watch’s report can be found here.
