Officer who killed Ashli Babbitt abandoned U.S. Capitol post for card game, lied about it, source says
By Steve Baker and Joseph M. Hanneman | The Blaze
The U.S. Capitol Police lieutenant who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt at the Capitol on Jan. 6 was recommended for termination in 2001 for abandoning his post in the Speaker’s Office for a card game in a nearby cloakroom, then lying about it to Internal Affairs Division investigators, Blaze News has learned.
The 2001 investigation of Michael L. Byrd, 56, was the first known disciplinary case brought against the lieutenant who crept from his blind near the doors to the Speaker’s Lobby on Jan. 6, 2021, and shot Babbitt to death. The 2001 incident is the fourth such disciplinary case disclosed since Nov. 20.
A source with detailed knowledge of the Internal Affairs Division case told Blaze News that Byrd was charged with abandoning his ...