by Paul Sperry
Most police departments — including Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police — are required to release an officer’s name within days of a fatal shooting. Not the U.S. Capitol Police, which is controlled by Congress and answers only to Congress. It can keep the public in the dark about the identity and investigation of an officer involved in a shooting indefinitely.
Which is what happened with the Jan. 6 shooting of Ashli Babbitt, an unarmed protester in the U.S. Capitol riot who was fatally wounded by a plainclothes police lieutenant as she attempted to breach a set of doors inside the building.
For the past six months, as Congress has proposed legislation to reform police departments across the country, the Capitol Police has stiff-armed government watchdogs, journalists and even lawyers for Babbitt, who have sought the identity of the officer and additional details about the shooting. The USCP still refuses to release his name, in stark contrast to recent high-profile police shootings around the nation.
In February, USCP issued a press release promising to “share additional information once the investigation is complete.” But Justice Department investigators closed their probe in April, clearing the officer of criminal wrongdoing in Babbitt’s death, which the medical examiner ruled a homicide. And last month, the D.C. Police — which shares jurisdiction with the Capitol Police and has led the investigation into Babbitt’s shooting — concluded its own internal review of the shooting without making any findings, according to spokeswoman Kristen Metzger.Still, USCP continues “stonewalling the public,” according to the head of the police union.
“That’s my department’s attorneys for you,” United States Capitol Police Labor Committee Chairman Gus Papathanasiou told RealClearInvestigations. “There is definitely a transparency issue. The department needs to answer those questions. They are stonewalling the public.”
Withholding the name of the officer who fired the fatal shot — the only round fired by anyone during the four-hour siege — has bred speculation on the Internet and led to the mistaken identification of at least one officer. USCP Special Agent David Bailey was wrongly fingered as the shooter on social media and conservative news sites.
After RCI called attention to the false rumor in an email to USCP, followed by a story on the issue, USCP’s communications chief officially knocked it down as “misinformation.”
Now a new name has surfaced in the Babbitt imbroglio — Lt. Michael L. Byrd — and while USCP Communications Director Eva Malecki won’t confirm he is the shooter, in this case she isn’t denying it.
In a little-noticed exchange, Byrd was cited by the acting House sergeant at arms during a brief discussion of the officer who shot Babbitt at a Feb. 25 House hearing. Both C-SPAN and CNN removed his name from transcripts, but CQ Transcripts — which, according to its website, provides “the complete word from Capitol Hill; exactly as it was spoken” — recorded the Capitol official, Timothy Blodgett, referring to the cop as “Officer Byrd.” His name is clearly audible in the videotape of the hearing (see video embed further below).
Byrd appears to match the description of the shooter, who video footage shows is an African American dressed that day in a business suit. Jewelry, including a beaded bracelet and lapel pin, also match up with photos of Byrd.
In addition, Byrd’s resume lines up with what is known about the experience and position of the officer involved in the shooting — a veteran USCP officer who holds the rank of lieutenant and is the commander of the House Chamber Section of the Capitol Police.
Following the shooting, Byrd’s Internet footprint was scrubbed, including his social media and personal photos.
Phone calls and emails to Byrd, who lives in Maryland where he remains on paid administrative leave, went unanswered. His attorney would neither confirm nor deny that the 53-year-old Byrd is the shooter, and warned that disclosing his name poses a safety risk to the officer.
The Babbitt family is frustrated USCP won’t release any information about the incident other than the terse and vaguely written statement it issued on Jan. 7: “[A] sworn USCP employee discharged their service weapon, striking an adult female.”
Because Congress has exempted the USCP from Freedom of Information Act requests, the family is suing the D.C. Police “for documents that identify the officer who shot Babbitt … as well as notes and summaries of what the officer said regarding the shooting and the reasons he discharged his weapon.” (The D.C. Police has led the investigation into Babbitt’s shooting.) A hearing before a judge is scheduled for Sept. 3. Washington-based watchdog Judicial Watch also is suing for the records.
“They sit back and they completely refuse to release the name of their own police officer that was involved in a shooting of an unarmed woman,” said Ashli Babbitt’s husband, Aaron. “It’s ridiculous, it’s absolutely ridiculous.”
Babbitt has hired a Maryland lawyer specializing in police-abuse cases who plans to file a wrongful-death lawsuit against USCP and the officer, seeking at least $10 million in damages.
The attorney, Terry Roberts, said he has received no information from USCP about the case, even though he contacted the department’s general counsel in May. But he said an investigator in his office has positively identified the shooter from a “painstaking” analysis of photos and videos taken by journalists and witnesses inside the Capitol, as well as from tips from citizens and other information.
He said a key witness is Taylor Hansen, a freelance journalist who films protests around the country and was outside the Speaker’s Lobby with Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force veteran, when she was shot. Hansen claims to have identified Byrd as the officer who opened fired on Babbitt, striking her in the lower left shoulder.
“Hansen was present when Ashli was shot,” Roberts told RCI. “He has spoken with my investigator. He provided a reliable and accurate account of what he saw; he also made a video recording, which proved useful.”
Roberts said he is not ready to name the officer as a defendant in the lawsuit until he meets federal regulations for filing personal-injury claims against government agencies and employees, which could take several more weeks. However, he told RCI, “He’s a guy who left his service revolver in a bathroom.”
In February 2019, Lt. Byrd was investigated for leaving his department-issued Glock-22 firearm unattended in a restroom on the House side of the Capitol, even though the potent weapon, which fires .40-caliber rounds, has no manual safety to prevent unintended firing. Fortunately, the abandoned gun was discovered by another officer during a routine security sweep. A Glock-22 was used in the Babbitt shooting.
It is quite obvious that you do not know what a hero really is! Is it now ok to shoot unarmed women climbing through a window with numerous people around? You are a pathetic being.
So, I was in Iraq and an old Iraqi man threw a handful of gravel at my vehicle. Under the rules of engagement, I could have killed him. Would that have made me a hero? I determined that the gravel presented no harm to me or my team, decided a shooting was not necessary and placed my weapon on safety.
Lt. Byrd lacked judgement and training. He likely wet his pants because a girl was climbing through a window!
The left sure takes a different perspective with police actions when they are desperately trying to bury anything that might distract from the false flag they are trying to keep flying over the January 6th riot. In any other case, the officer’s name is released and the harassment of him and his family is fully approved. But in this case, focus must remain on the phony premise of “armed insurrection”.
I understand an officer panicking in such a chaotic situation. However, in those cases the officer must face justice. There is no way that shooting was justified and the officer must be held accountable.
The whole affair is terrible, but was designed to engineer chaos and thusly be used as a false-flag to persecute 75 million Americans who still believe in our Constitution.
Rather textbook, this Jan. 6th nonsense. Flimsy, too.
No insurrection, no collusion, no obstruction.
Total exoneration.
Rigged elections, segregation, failed policies.
The Democrat coup is complete, and we live in a new country.
Biden is a Dictator. Trump is an honest candidate once more, fighting against corrupt FBI, Democrats, and globalists installing a one-party police state against the legal wishes of our electorate.
Ashley Babbitt is dead because of Donald Trump’s lies. He might as well have pulled the trigger himself. But YOU want to put a target on the back of the unnamed police officer who fired his weapon the moment a violent mob breached the last barrier standing between themselves and elected officials he was sworn to protect.
“Ashley Babbitt is dead because of Donald Trump’s lies.”
And the Reichstag fire was started by the Communists.
You’re a blithering idiot.
You’re a broken record, stuck on a groove that says nothing.
She’s dead because she believed his LIES—which he’s STILL telling.
Comrade Greggie, you’re a disgusting pig. And hundreds of thousands are dead because people like you believe the lies of the CCP.
Had Ashli Babbitt been black and a criminal, you would be singing her praises.
“Socialist” Democratic Party programs are probably the only reason you’re not a homeless bag lady ranting about “communists” in the local bus station.
10% of your take home pay shoved into a savings account from the first paycheck you ever get will prevent you from being dependent on the government, ever. Obviously you never learned that. You know more about bus stations than I do since I’ve never been in one and you seem to be familiar with them. Use them for pick up hot spots, do you, Comrade Greggie?
We all know you earn your living by being a (CCP) whore.
Democrats prefer those savings accounts being somewhere they can readily get access to and steal from. It’s one of the ways they buy votes.
10% of your take home pay shoved into a savings account from the first paycheck…”
Apparently you haven’t checked the interest rates that savings accounts pay for a few years. You’re really not very good at insults, in spite of all the practice you get.
Hey, dipshit, where did I say anything about interest? I didn’t. I said put 10% of your paycheck into a savings account. End of story. Don’t spend it. Save it. After 10 paychecks, you have saved the total of one take home check. That’s Econ 101, dumbass.
I know you are impervious to insults. You have no self respect and you have made that quite clear.
You’re still a pig. A Communist pig.
Save a dime a week, and in ten weeks you’ll have a dollar… What a stunning insight. Maybe you should consider running for Treasurer.
Makes far more economic sense than printing trillions of dollars and borrowing trillions of dollars and giving it to Democrats to waste and steal. More sense than paying people not to work. More sense than regulating and taxing companies until they go out of business or move off-shore.
The national debt grew faster during the four years of the Trump administration than during any other four-year presidential term in U.S. history. THAT is a FACT.
The debt was increased by nearly 36 PERCENT in only four short years.
Thanks to Democrats bloating COVID aid bills with their trillions of dollars of needless and wasteful pork. See where it all always winds up?
It’s also a fact that the Democrats, controlling the House and the Republicans not having enough votes to override Democrat filibusters, controlled spending and drove the debt up. Then, of course, there was Obama’s $10 trillion of debt that benefitted no one but wealthy Democrats.
Ah yes, the last effort of the cornered troll: parse words like a 6th-grade Karen.
I’ll help, though…with the insults:
You’re a feckless, cowardly, mis-information spreading piece of garbage that has no regard for democracy, life, or even intelligent debate.
You are paid to be here to sh*t on the conversation. You are scum. You are FBI or CCP. Yours is a world of tyranny guised by accusing Trump and actual Americans of doing what you and your party/organization are doing.
Democrats pushed an insurrection for four years, culminating in a false flag on Jan. 6th with open doors, the murder of Ashley Babbit (none of you care about her death, so eat a d*ck, moron), all in the wake of clearly rigged election.
So much proof. So many lies. We know Democrats cheated, and now we have a puppet sitting in the WH that no thinking American regards at the President of the United States.
Your Federal Stasi is being grown. Are you going to go door to door, then?
Are you going to get your hands dirty, to pursue this vile Marxist take over of the U.S.A?
Your attempts to mark Trump — one of the best and most Centrist Presidents of all time — have failed. Stop trying. You have nothing.
Biden just quoted Stalin today. That’s the final nail in the coffin of this coup.
Biden is not the legal President of the United States, and never will be.
Like “Community Reinvestment Act”. Yeah, big help. How’d that “War on Poverty” work out? $20 trillion dollars later and we have MORE people in poverty. Yeah, Democrats and their programs are a real boon to society. Try again, scooter.
Communist vote-counting policies from Democrat-controlled voting operations (“It’s no longer about who gets to vote… it’s about who gets to count the vote” – Dictator Biden) are the only reason you still have a job with the FBI and CCP.
But do tell us about how it’s actually Trump acting like an autocrat. I never tire of your indoctrination attempts.
She was killed by leftist rhetoric. She was pushed forward by John Sullivan, the BLM violent thug there inciting violence.
Perhaps the officer overreacted and made a mistake but he needs to be held accountable, not shielded because the left wants to promote their “insurrection” myth.
All Democrats do is lie.
Weak. Your rhetoric is completely without teeth now, greg.
Just shut up and think. You now have the civil war and dictatorship you wanted and actively worked for.