Judicial Watch obtained new evidence in the Ashli Babbitt killing from the DC Metropolitan Police Department that calls into question Lt. Michael Byrd‘s decision to shoot the unarmed, 14-year Air Force veteran.
The two main pieces of evidence include an audio interview, with disguised voices, that the DC Police conducted with Byrd after the shooting and cell phone video from immediately after the shooting in which police officers failed to provide Babbitt prompt medical care.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said that Byrd’s “reckless decision” to shoot Babbitt without warning placed nearby officers and citizens “in harm’s way” and “right in the line of fire.”
Judicial Watch also received photos from inside the Capitol building after shooting, of Byrd, his hands, his gun, and of a utility knife that investigators said they found in Babbitt’s pocket.
“These recordings and photos provide dramatic, first-hand evidence that the shooting death of Ashli Babbitt was unjustified,” Fitton said. “It is disturbing that neither the Pelosi Congress nor the Biden/Garland DOJ took [any] action over this needless death.”
Instead, NBC News lauded Byrd’s actions during a friendly interview, in which he proclaimed that he acted with “the utmost courage” and “saved countless lives.”
Judicial Watch obtained these records as the result of a May 2021 Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, following failure of the DC Police and Office of the Chief Medical Examinerto comply with the group’s FOIA requests.
Earlier records obtained by Judicial Watch found that other officers at the scene did not see a weapon in Babbitt’s hands prior to the shooting and that they did not hear Byrd issue any verbal commands prior to the shooting.
In one interview, an officer claimed that before the shooting he “didn’t see anything in her hands.”
