Federal prosecutors will not charge a police officer who shot and killed a woman as she climbed through a broken door during the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6.
Authorities considered for months whether criminal charges were appropriate for the Capitol Police officer who fatally shot Ashli Babbitt, 35, an Air Force veteran from San Diego.
The Justice Department’s decision, although expected, officially closes the investigation.
Prosecutors said they had reviewed video of the shooting, statements from the officer involved and other officers and witnesses, examined physical evidence from the scene and reviewed the post-mortem examination results.
“Based on that investigation, officials determined that there is insufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution,” the department said.
Video clips posted online depict Babbitt, wearing a stars-and-stripes backpack, stepping up and starting to go through the waist-high opening of an area known as the Speaker’s Lobby when a shot is heard. She falls backwards.
Another video shows unidentified people trying to lift Babbitt up. She slumps back to the ground.
Prosecutors said Babbitt was part of the mob who were trying to enter the House as Capitol Police officers were removing members of Congress from the chamber.
The officers used furniture to try to barricade the glass doors separating the hallway from the Speaker’s Lobby to stave off the rioters.
The intruders kept trying to break through those doors, smashing the glass with flagpoles, helmets and other objects.
One of five dead
Babbitt tried climbing through one of the doors where the glass had been broken out.
A Capitol Police officer inside the Speaker’s Lobby then fired a single round from his service weapon, striking Babbitt in the shoulder, prosecutors said.
She fell to the ground before a police tactical team rushed into the area and gave first aid. Babbitt was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
She was one of five people who died in or outside the Capitol on January 6, including a police officer. Three other people died after medical emergencies.
The Justice Department does not bring criminal charges in most police shootings it investigates, partly because of the high burden for prosecution.
Criminal charges were not expected because videos of the shooting show Babbitt encroaching on a prohibited space, and second-guessing the actions of an officer during the violent and chaotic day would have been a great challenge.
