[AmGreatness] Three months after Ashli Babbitt, an unarmed veteran and Trump supporter, was killed by a Capitol police officer on January 6, 2021, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights division closed its investigation into the fatal shooting.
Omitting the name of Lieutenant Michael Byrd—the media, law enforcement officials, and congressional leaders concealed his identity for months—the Justice Department concluded Byrd did not violate 18 U.S.C., section 242, a federal criminal civil rights statute, when he shot Babbitt at point-blank range without warning, barely missing her face, around 2:45 p.m. that day. “The investigation revealed no evidence to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer willfully committed a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 242,” the Justice Department said in an April 2021 statement.
Reports later revealed that Byrd had refused to participate in any substantive probe of his conduct on January 6. Not only did Byrd escape criminal charges or any internal reprimand, he is still employed as head of security for the House of Representatives and heralded as a hero in many quarters, including the national news media.
At the same time the civil rights division exonerated Byrd of any wrongdoing, the office was investigating a Louisville police officer for allegedly violating the civil rights of a Black Lives Matter protester during riots in that city following the police-involved deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. Louisville, Taylor’s hometown, was rocked by nights of violent protests resulting in millions of dollars in damages. Seven people were shot on the evening of May 28, 2020; rioters vandalized government buildings and looted stores downtown while attacking officers attempting to restore order.
One of those officers was Cory Evans, a member of the Louisville Police Department. A former Army special forces operative with a tour in Afghanistan, Evans was part of the department’s special response team to deal with large crowds or political protests, which included the BLM riots over Memorial Day weekend 2020. |