People place flowers and candles for Ashli Babbit, an Air Force veteran who was shot dead in the U.S. Capitol yesterday, was honored near the U.S. Capitol in Washington DC on January 7, 2020.
Tayfun Coskun | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
The Capitol Police Officer who shot Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt when a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 will not be disciplined after an internal investigation found no wrongdoing, the department said Monday.
A review “confirmed that the officer’s conduct was lawful and in line with ministry guidelines,” the Capitol Police said in a statement. The department said an officer could use lethal force if he “reasonably” believed it was being done “for the protection of human life” or “any person at imminent risk of serious bodily harm”.
“The officer’s actions in this case potentially saved members and staff from serious injury and possible death from the large crowd of rioters who invaded the US Capitol and the House of Representatives, where members and staff were steps away “It is said in the statement department.
Capitol Police failed to identify the officer and raised security concerns. The federal prosecutor’s office declined to indict the officer in April.
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Capitol Police said the internal investigation included multiple witness interviews and reviews of video clips and radio calls.
The video showed Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force veteran from San Diego, amid a group of rioters trying to break through barricaded doors to the speaker’s lobby that leads into the House of Representatives chamber. Babbitt tried to climb through a door that had broken glass before the officer shot her once.
She was one of five people, including a police officer, who died as a result of the mob that stormed the Capitol. Four other officers who responded to the mob have died of suicide since the attack.
The uprising disrupted legislature efforts to count President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory over former President Donald Trump when members of Congress fled. Trump supporters, enthusiastic about the ex-president’s conspiracy theories that widespread fraud had cost him a second term in the White House, reached ex-Vice President Mike Pence and the legislature in a matter of moments.
The House of Representatives has charged Trump with instigating a riot in his final days in office. The Senate acquitted him after Biden’s inauguration.
Babbitt’s family previously sued the identity of the policeman who shot them.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255.
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