Did the House Sergeant at Arms Just Accidentally Name Ashli Babbitt’s Shooter?
Arms for the House of Representatives, and in an interview with Congressional member Herrera-Buetler in a January 6 hearing just released, he dropped a name he probably shouldn’t have.
The January 6 hearing appeared on C-SPAN, and he seems to have just causally dropped the name without thinking.
“The situation where you discussed, where Officer [Byrd] was at the door when Ms. Babbitt was shot, it was our Sergeant at Arms employee who rendered the aid.”
Now why would he mention officer Byrd in the context of Ashli Babbitt’s shooting? Mike Bird is an African American Lieutenant with the Capitol Police and was reported by Roll Call as having once left his service weapon in a bathroom in 2019.
“A U.S. Capitol Police lieutenant left his service weapon in a bathroom Monday night and the unattended gun was discovered later by another Capitol Police officer,” Roll Call reported.
“After the House adjourned on Monday, Lt. Mike Byrd left his Glock 22 in a bathroom in the Capitol Visitor Center complex, according to sources familiar with the incident,” the report said. “Byrd is the commander of the House Chambers section of the Capitol Police and was on the job Tuesday and Wednesday.”
“Byrd addressed the incident at Tuesday morning’s officer roll call and, according to sources, told fellow officers that he ‘will be treated differently’ because of his rank as a lieutenant,” the report added. “It was not clear what exactly the lieutenant meant by the comment.”
The New York Times who refuses to name names but referred to the officer who shot and killed the unarmed Babbitt as a “lieutenant” and a “veteran officer.”
He was not charged with excessive force or negligence despite the fact that he shot and killed an unarmed 34-year-old and unarmed female Ashli Babbitt at point blank range in the neck and murdered her. Capitol Police are directly supervised by the United States Congress, and are of course immune to subpoena.
“More than six weeks after Babbitt succumbed to a single gunshot wound to the upper chest, authorities are keeping secret the identity of the officer who fired the fatal round,” Real Clear Investigations’ Paul Sperry noted. “They won’t release his name, and the major news media aren’t clamoring for it, in stark contrast to other high-profile police shootings of unarmed civilians.”
“The officer who opened fire on Babbitt holds the rank of lieutenant and is a longtime veteran of the force who worked protective detail in the Speaker’s Lobby, a highly restricted area behind the House chamber, sources say,” Sperry notes. “An African-American, he was put on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation led by the Metropolitan Police of the District of Columbia, which shares jurisdiction with the Capitol Police. The Justice Department is also involved in the inquiry.”
In April the Biden Department of Justice ran by disgruntled and butthurt Attorney General Merrick Garland dropped all charges related to the still unnamed and unidentified officer who shot and killed Babbitt. Garland of course was nominated for the Supreme Court by then President Obama, however the Republican led Senate refused to vote on him until after the presidential election, which President Trump won in 2016.