No Charges Against Officer Who Shot Ashli Babbitt: DOJ. Lawyer for Babbitt’s family calls decision ‘baffling.’ “I find it to be baffling given the circumstances that it’s a clear case of shooting an unarmed person without any legal justification, but I have no idea what went into their decision.”
The — still unnamed — officer’s lawyer:
“This is the only correct conclusion following the events of January 6. The lieutenant exercised professionalism and fantastic restraint in defending and protecting members of Congress.”
The officer remains unidentified in the public sphere.
“As unfortunate as it is that the lieutenant had to resort to deadly force, he fired only one shot at the only person who breached the locked doors and makeshift barricade that had been erected. He did so after clearly identifying himself and ordering the mob not to come through the barricade,” Schamel added. “He used tremendous restraint in only firing one shot, and his actions stopped the mob from breaking through and turning a horrific day in American history into something so much worse.”
Missing from this: Any claim that the unarmed Ashli Babbitt posed a threat of death or great bodily harm, the necessary predicate for deadly force, to anyone. There’s no “members of Congress were scared” exception to the law on deadly force.
But this is a police shooting that all the Best People heartily approve.
h/t Glenn