Michael Byrd, the U.S. Capitol Police lieutenant who shot and killed an unarmed Ashli Babbitt at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was secretly housed at a major Maryland military base after the shooting while his name was being withheld from the public, a new lawsuit contends.
That allegation was made on Oct. 7 by Judicial Watch. The organization stated that it filed a federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit to unearth details about Byrd’s housing arrangement at Joint Base Andrews (JBA), which was known as Andrews Air Force Base prior to 2009.
No other details about the alleged housing arrangement were released on Oct. 7. The Epoch Times reached out to Judicial Watch for more details, but didn’t receive a response by press time.
The lawsuit said Judicial Watch is seeking all records related to the billeting of Byrd at JBA from Jan. 6, 2021, to the present, including but not limited to authorization papers, housing, meals, transportation, visitor logs, electronic communications between JBA officials and U.S. Capitol Police officials, DOJ officials and any other military or government officials, and electronic communications between JBA officials and Lt. Byrd.
Byrd shot and killed an unarmed Babbitt as she appeared to climb into a broken-out window leading into the Speaker’s Lobby at 2:44 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021. Behind her was a raucous crowd of rioters, including many “suspicious actors” and “material witnesses” who haven’t been identified, arrested, or charged for their presence at the Capitol or questioned as witnesses at the scene of a fatal shooting.
Shooter’s ID Hidden for Months
The Babbitt shooting was unusual in many respects. Byrd’s identity as the shooter was hidden from the public for seven months until he decided to go on NBC for a nationwide interview with Lester Holt.Byrd wouldn’t talk to internal affairs detectives from the Metropolitan Police Department who led the investigation into the shooting.
According to a DOJ report, Byrd agreed to a “voluntary debrief and walk-through of the scene” with his attorney in late January 2021, in which he said that if the “mob of rioters” outside the Speaker’s Lobby had gained entry, “it wasn’t going to go well.”
Byrd also was cleared by the U.S. Capitol Police and returned to duty.
“After a thorough review of the facts and circumstances in this case, there is insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Lt. Byrd violated Ms. McEntee’s [sic] civil rights by willfully using more force than was reasonably necessary, or was not acting in self-defense or the defense of others,” the undated 14-page DOJ document reads.
‘Killed Under Color of Authority’
Stan Kephart, a use-of-force expert interviewed for The Epoch Times documentary, “The Real Story of Jan. 6,” called the shooting murder.“My conclusion ... based on what I saw and observed in the video clips, is that Ashli Babbitt was murdered,” said Kephart, a 42-year veteran of law enforcement and former director of security for the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics. He has testified on topics that include excessive force, police discipline, officer safety, and crowd control.
“She was shot and killed under color of authority by an officer who violated not only the law but his oath and committed an arrestable offense.”
That contention was hotly disputed by Mark Schamel, an attorney for Byrd.
“When Ms. Babbitt entered through the broken window and entered the inner protected area, wearing a backpack and refusing the verbal commands of multiple armed federal officers with weapons drawn, the threat she posed was clear,” Schamel told The Epoch Times in July. “Lt. Byrd, as the first officer in the final line of defense, was absolutely justified in his use of force.”
Byrd said he shouted commands telling Babbitt to stop, but it appears as though no one in the Speaker’s Lobby hallway heard them. Three U.S. Capitol Police officers stationed outside the entrance doors reported that they didn’t hear anything coming from inside the Speaker’s Lobby.
