A California physician who was pulled away by police as he tried to render medical aid to a dying Ashli Babbitt pleaded guilty on June 15 to a petty misdemeanor for being at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Austin Brendlen Harris, 42, of Granada Hills, California, took a deal from federal prosecutors and pleaded guilty to one count of parading, protesting, or picketing in a Capitol building. He entered the plea before U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton in Washington.
Harris will be sentenced on Dec. 8. He faces a maximum of six months in jail, five years of probation, and a $5,000 fine.
He was charged in January with four misdemeanor counts, including knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds without authority, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.
No Mention of Rescue
The statement of offense prepared by federal prosecutors as part of Harris’s plea deal makes no mention of his actions to render aid to Babbitt, who was shot in the hallway outside the Speaker’s Lobby at 2:45 p.m. on Jan. 6.Harris treated Babbitt’s gunshot wound for four minutes after U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd shot her with his 9mm service pistol.
When Babbitt fell from the window frame she was climbing into, Harris stepped forward from the hallway crowd to provide aid.
Harris was on his knees checking Babbitt’s upper chest wound when an unidentified U.S. Capitol Police bicycle officer reached down and grabbed him by the shoulders.
The officer wrestled Harris away from Babbitt, grabbed him by the jacket, and shoved him down the hallway, according to video footage shot by Jan. 6 defendant John Sullivan.
The visibly angry officer kept pushing Harris as the two struggled down the hallway. Harris went back a short time later to retrieve his medical bag.
Prosecutors said Harris was seen on the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol, near the inauguration platform. He was “overheard comparing [police] officers to Nazis,” charging documents alleged.
Harris posted a complaint on Facebook about how the “swamp establishment” had made election integrity “a joke,” and lamented that “a 90-pound woman was gunned down by Capitol Police being absolutely no threat,” referring to Babbitt.
