Internal police docs: ‘No good reason for shooting’ Ashli Babbitt

In May, Judicial Watch filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain more than 500 pages of internal documents from the DC Metropolitan Police regarding the killing of Ashli Babbitt.

In the report, eyewitness testimony from a Capitol Police sergeant, whose name was redacted, suggests that while Babbitt did in fact climb through a broken window to enter the Capitol building, she was not carrying a weapon when she was shot by Capitol Police officer Lt. Michael Byrd.

"Sergeant [redacted] observed a white, female protester was climbing through an opened area where the glass pane had been knocked out," a document from the Internal Affairs Division states.

"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 documents obtained by Judicial Watch also reveal that Lieutenant Byrd was "visibly upset" after the incident.

According to Fox News, president of Judicial Watch Tom Fitton said that, "These previously secret records show there was no good reason to shoot and kill Ashli Babbitt," adding that, "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."

Former President Donald Trump has requested that the Department of Justice look further into Babbitt's death, and told that to Babbitt's family on what would have been her birthday.

Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran, was the only person killed during the Capitol riot on January 6, when Trump supporters entered the Capitol Building illegally with the intention of stopping a congressional vote to certify the Electoral College's vote for Joe Biden.

Babbitt was shot and killed by a Capitol Police Officer, and it was announced in April that no charges would be filed against that officer.

The Department of Justice closed the investigation into the police killing of veteran Ashli Babbitt, the unarmed woman who was part of the mob that unlawfully entered the Capitol Building in Washington, DC, on Jan. 6.

Babbitt was shot by an unnamed officer on Jan. 6 despite the fact that police were told not to use their most aggressive tactics in dealing with the mob on that day. The New York Times reported that "Capitol Police had clearer advance warnings about the Jan. 6 attack than were previously known, including the potential for violence in which 'Congress itself is the target.'"