The family of Ashli Babbitt is suing Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) to learn the identity of the officer who fatally shot Babbitt in the Capitol on January 6.
Court documents show that the plaintiff, Aaron Babbitt, filed the lawsuit on April 21, 2021. Under Washington code, the MPD was supposed to produce the requested information or prove that the department is legally exempt from doing so within 15 days. As of June 4, the department has yet to do either.
Aaron Bobbitt’s attorney, Terrell Roberts, stated the problem with the lawsuit is that Capitol Police are not subject to the law regarding the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
“The complication here is that the Capitol Police are not subject to FOIA. However, they used the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia to conduct their investigation,” Roberts explained. “In other words, the United States Attorney’s Office did a criminal investigation and relied upon the Metropolitan Police Department to conduct their factual investigation. And so now that they’ve decided against bringing charges I am going to seek any kind of records that they may have collected in their investigation, including any records which identify the officer.”
The Department of Justice (DOJ) decided not to press charges against the Capitol Police officer who shot the unarmed Babbitt as she was attempting to climb through a broken window to get into the House speaker’s lobby, stating, “Based on that investigation, officials determined that there is insufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution.”
Roberts alleges that the officer who killed Babbitt didn’t give her a verbal warning before fatally shooting her with one shot to the neck.
We have seen plenty of shootings where the identity of the cops involved in a shooting are known immediately, including the shootings of young teens like Tamir Rice and Adam Toledo (Rice was holding a pellet gun and Toledo was holding a real one). Personally, I can’t recall a shooting where we didn’t learn the name of the officer involved except for Babbitt’s killer.
Babbitt’s killing seems even harsher knowing that almost half of the Seattle rioters had their federal charges dropped — charges including arson and assault against cops. Ashli Babbitt didn’t start a fire or throw rocks at police officers but a mysterious cop who won’t be named or charged decided lethal force was necessary.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member