By Joseph M. Hanneman
Within a minute after firing the fatal bullet that struck Ashli Babbitt on Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd broadcast a radio report claiming shots were being fired at him in the Speaker’s Lobby and he was “prepared to fire back,” a federal lawsuit alleges.
The previously undisclosed radio dispatch is also contained on an audio recording obtained exclusively by The Epoch Times of the “OPS2” dispatch channel used by Capitol Police on Jan. 6.
Information on the recording is contained in a federal lawsuit filed on Jan. 5 by Ms. Babbitt’s widower, Aaron Babbitt of San Diego. Mr. Babbitt, backed in his lawsuit by Judicial Watch, is seeking $30 million from the U. S. government for wrongful death.
According to the lawsuit, Mr. Byrd fired his Glock 22 .40-caliber pistol, striking Ms. Babbitt in the left shoulder, then announced that he was being fired upon and was ready to return fire.
“In fact, no shots were fired at Lt. Byrd or his fellow officers,” the lawsuit stated. “The only shot fired was the single shot Lt. Byrd fired at Ashli. He heard the loud noise of the gunshot. He saw her fall backward from the window frame.”
The Epoch Times reached out to Capitol Police and Mr. Byrd’s attorney for comment on the lawsuit and its allegations. Mr. Byrd is now a captain with U.S. Capitol Police.
A few minutes prior to the shooting, a police dispatcher mistakenly reported, “They’re taking shots into the House floor.”
“Lt. Byrd erroneously believed and acted on a false radio call and/or false report of shots fired on the House floor occurring before he left the House floor and moved across the Speaker’s Lobby to the adjacent Retiring Room,” the suit said.
“A reasonably prudent officer in Lt. Byrd’s position would have been aware that, in fact, the report was false and the sound heard on the House floor was glass breaking, not shots fired,” the lawsuit alleged.
It is not clear why Mr. Byrd made the statement that he was taking fire and was prepared to fire back. His radio dispatch occurred up to a minute after he fired on Ms. Babbitt, the suit said.
“The facts speak truth. Ashli was ambushed when she was shot by Lt. Byrd,” the lawsuit said. “Multiple witnesses at the scene yelled, ‘You just murdered her.’”
“Lt. Byrd was never charged or otherwise punished or disciplined for Ashli’s homicide,” the suit stated.
Video shot from the hallway outside the Speaker’s Lobby shows Mr. Byrd emerging in a shooting stance with both hands holding the Glock.
In his only public statements about the shooting—made not to investigators but to an NBC television anchor—Mr. Byrd never mentioned his radio dispatch or his claim that shots were being fired at him and other officers. Nor did he use that as justification for firing his weapon and killing Ms. Babbitt.
An unknown U.S. Capitol Police officer first reported shots fired in the U.S. House just before 2:43 p.m., followed later by Mr. Byrd’s shots-fired announcement, according to the audio recording obtained by The Epoch Times. Both reports turned out to be unfounded.
Officer: “Shots fired, House floor. Shots fired, House floor. Immediate assistance.”
Dispatch: “Shots fired, House floor. Shots fired, House floor.”
2nd Dispatcher: “I need units to re…,” which was cut off mid-sentence. That message ceased on the OPS2 channel but was heard in full on the OPS1 channel:
“I need units to respond to the chamber, the House chamber floor,” the dispatcher said. “Again, units need to respond to the House floor in reference to shots fired. They were shots fired at the House floor. Again, units to respond. They’re taking shots into the House floor. We need units to respond to that location. 1443 hours.”
Lt. Byrd: “405-B. We got shots fired in the lobby. We got fot (sic), shots fired in the lobby of the House chamber. Shots are being fired at us, and we’re prepared to fire back at them. We have guns drawn. [Unintelligible] Don’t leave that end! Don’t leave that end!”
Mr. Byrd’s dispatch was followed by 11 seconds of radio silence.
The transcript of the OPS2 radio communications provided by the Department of Justice (DOJ) as evidence in Jan. 6 criminal cases does not include the words “we’re prepared to fire back at them.” The DOJ transcript instead says, “and it went, so we locked it down.”
Dispatcher: “Simulcasting, shots fired on the House floor again.”
Lt. Byrd: “We’ve got an injured person. I believe that person was shot. It was…” (cut off by another transmission).
Unknown officer: “…Shot, one down, civilian. We need EMTs. We need… Come through on the west side of the building … to the House lobby.”
Dispatch: “That’d be House…”
Lt. Byrd: “405-B, did you copy?”
Dispatch: “I copied. House lobby, west side. Individual…”
Mr. Byrd retreated from the entrance to the seated area in the Speaker’s Lobby. Officer Mike Brown, a member of the USCP Containment and Emergency Response Team (CERT), said Mr. Byrd was “down and out and almost in tears.”
The revelation of Mr. Byrd’s previously undisclosed radio statements raises fresh questions about the shooting of Ms. Babbitt, 35, and the investigation that cleared him of potential charges of excessive use of force.
The DOJ report explaining why no charges were pursued did not mention Mr. Byrd’s radio dispatch.
Mr. Byrd never made a statement to internal affairs officers who investigated the shooting on behalf of U.S. Capitol Police. When he met with DC Metro internal affairs the night of Jan. 6, 2021, he said he wanted to retain an attorney before saying anything.
Mr. Byrd and his attorney did an informal walk-through of the shooting scene with a Capitol Police official in late January 2021 but he was never subjected to questioning.
DOJ Report Contained Errors
The DOJ report absolving Mr. Byrd from culpability included numerous errors and incorrect statements.
The report says that after the glass in the doors leading to the Speaker’s Lobby was smashed out, rioters “were then able to reach through the broken glass and push the chairs off the top of the barricaded furniture.”
Video shot from the hallway does not show anyone toppling chairs from the makeshift barricade, either before or after Ms. Babbitt was shot.
The report quotes Jason Gandolph of the House Sergeant at Arms office saying he and several Capitol Police officers “attempted to keep the demonstrators from advancing toward the Speaker’s Lobby after the Capitol was breached.”
According to a cell phone video from Tayler Hansen, the first protester to enter the hallway outside the Speaker’s Lobby, he said hello to Mr. Gandolph on his way in and told him, “Stay safe, all right?”
When Mr. Hansen and Ms. Babbitt approached the doors to the Speaker’s Lobby, they engaged in friendly chatter with the three officers guarding the doors: Sgt. Timothy Lively, Officer Kyle Yetter, and Officer Christopher Lanciano.
Noting that two of the officers had been sprayed with a fire extinguisher earlier in the day and were coated with white powder, Mr. Hansen asked Officer Yetter, “You need a water or something, man?”
Mr. Gandolph told investigators that he observed Ms. Babbitt “participate in breaking the glass to the doors.”
Video shows Ms. Babbitt did not strike the glass or commit any vandalism during her time in the hallway. She confronted agitator Zachary Alam for smashing the glass and eventually punched him in the nose when he broke out a side window, video evidence shows.
Despite clear video from the hallway, the DOJ described Ms. Babbitt as “an active participant in a ‘mob’ that had just illegally entered the Capitol building.”
The Epoch Times asked the DOJ for comment on its use-of-force report but did not get a reply by press time.
First-aid efforts by Mr. Gandolph and a member of the USCP SWAT team were described in the DOJ report. The document fails to mention that Dr. Austin Harris, a California cardiothoracic anesthesiologist who was in the crowd, knelt down with his medical bag, checked for a pulse, and began assessing Ms. Babbitt’s wounds.
After four minutes of rendering aid to Ms. Babbitt, Dr. Harris was grabbed by a USCP bicycle officer, pulled from his kneeling position, and wrestled away from his dying patient. The officer shoved Dr. Harris down the hall and forced him to leave the area.
A short time earlier, Young Kim—a videographer with medic training who was assisting Dr. Harris—was forced by police to stop his rescue efforts and abandon the scene.
On Jan. 25, 2023, Dr. Harris was arrested by the FBI and charged with four misdemeanors for being in the Capitol on Jan. 6. Mr. Kim was briefly on the FBI’s Jan. 6 most-wanted list but was later removed without explanation in April 2021.
Unusual Facts in the Case
The Babbitt shooting had a number of other unusual aspects. Mr. Byrd’s name was withheld from the media and the public for nearly nine months. His name was still secret four months after the DOJ decided not to pursue charges against Mr. Byrd. His name only became public when he sat down for an interview with NBC News anchor Lester Holt.
Apart from being a scumbag he is a liar. He should be charged with 1st degree murder
He has all the characteristics the left admires.
Very scary little Ashlee Babbitt, an unarmed woman that struck mortal fear in Byrd’s heart. Why is this always the side the Democrats take? Always on the WRONG side of everything.
She was not disarmed she was unarmed, they have stopped talking about Ashley as a dangerous threat , that was to hard to portray with 3 heavily armed guards outside the doors.
Who opened the magnetic doors, who ordered that?
Who gave the command to open fire on the crowd?
This happened as the speech ended no one at the speech that allegedly were worked up into a frenzy by Trump had the time to get there.
That is correct, simply a mistake on my part, which I corrected. I’m surprised Byrd escaped reprimand for firing in the direction of those three officers that were just behind Babbitt. But, I guess when you are a black officer killing an “insurrectionist”, you will get away with a lot of errors. Byrd is a gutless coward that does not deserve to be behind a badge.
Watch the video of Byrd, in the House with Troy Nehls and two others, remove his side arm in the House. It is clearly him.
Then watch the video of Ashli’s shooting. Byrd sticks his arm out of a opening (window/door) and is pointing his side arm. But he steps forward, his head still not visible, aims his side arm (it looks to be directly at Ashli Babbitt) and fires. You can see him squeeze the trigger.
Mr. Byrd never made a statement to internal affairs officers who investigated the shooting on behalf of U.S. Capitol Police.
It gets worse. Byrd not only did not make a statement to IA, but he never filed an “after action” report that is required by all P.D.s after a shooting.
So, no after action report, no statement to IA, transferred by Nancy Pelosi to Langley AFB for his “protection” and then promoted to rank of Captain. Break all the rules of lethal defense, kill a white Air Force veteran, and get protected by then Speaker of the House as well as a promotion.
Racism against whites is acceptable by Democrats, don’t you know?
DEI in action.
The insurrection promoters didn’t want anything to distract from their narrative and treating Byrd like the cowardly piece of shit murderer he is would occupy some of the air time. So, Democrats merely declared Byrd clean, swept Babbitt’s murder under a rug, place a safe on the rug and went back to claiming “Peacefully go and make your voices heard” is riot-inciting rhetoric.
Memory holed is John Sullivan’s video (Utah’s head of BLM/Utah).
He was standing beside U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd, oddly inside the area that Cap Hill PD was trying to keep clear of “insurrectionists.”
As Byrd shot at and hit Ashley, you could hear John Sullivan shout clearly: “WE got one! WE got one!”
I saw and heard this video at least five times before it disappeared.
John Sullivan:
Look around you. Is the mean video in the room right now, Nan?
In pops Mikey to stamp his little hooves.
You know, for someone whose side has a habit of suppressing video of January 6th because it utterly destroyed their false narrative, you might not want to be so arrogant about whether or not such a video exists. Thus far, about 99.5% of the allegations against the left regarding their manipulation of the events on January 6th and all the information collected during the protest and riot have proven valid.
But, then again, you really don’t care too much about being truthful, do you?
Ashli Babbitt is dead because she believed Trump’s lies.
Tell me that if these assholes were breaking down your front door you wouldn’t shoot, and I’ll call you a liar.
The first one through the door goes down, and that stops the mob. In fear for your own life and the lives of those you’re sworn to protect, with zero time to calculate or reflect, it becomes as simple as that. You shoot the first one through the breech.
Eugene Goodman was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal by unanimous consent of Congress. He deserved it.
Yeah, and Officer Sicknick was laid in state in the Rotunda for dying of a stroke the following day. Politics and theater. The only thing Democrats are good at is lying, and they aren’t even that good at that.
There’s NOTHING in that video that isn’t true.
3 years later, Jan. 6 by the numbers: More than 1,200 charged, more than 460 imprisoned for role in Capitol attack
Tell me which one of those beating on the glass was Ashli Babbitt, Comrade F*ckhead.
The officer inside sure as hell couldn’t tell.
Oh, sure, U.S. Capital Police Department protocol allows for their officers to randomly fire blindly shooting into a crowd not knowing who they might hit.
You’re a lying sack of crap, Comrade Greggie. And stupid to boot.
Tell me that if these assholes were breaking down your front door you wouldn’t shoot, and I’ll call you a liar.
If you shoot someone on the other side of the door, you’re going to jail, stupid.
Sadly, she stopped being on the other side of the door when somebody gave her a boost directly into the line of fire, after a warning that guns were out had been shouted. You’re all amazingly incurious about that.
That wasn’t your proposition though, dumbass. Regardless, Byrd did not and could not assess any viable lethal threat from anyone on the other side of the door, much less taking aim at probably the LEAST threatening of anyone there.
Byrd, like anyone that defends him, is a cowardly, racist, misogynist piece of shit.
byrd was an unstable and reckless piece of shit. This lawsuit will expose his guilt in 1st degree murder.
Tell me that if these assholes were breaking down your front door you wouldn’t shoot, and I’ll call you a liar.
The first one through the door goes down, and that stops the mob. In fear for your own life and the lives of those you’re sworn to protect, with zero time to calculate or reflect, it becomes as simple as that. You shoot the first one through the breech.
If you shot through a door and killed someone, you’d go to jail. Where is Byrd today?
So, why weren’t any of the ANTIFA thugs beating on the door shot? Or, even arrested?
Who has been identified as a member of ANTIFA? Anyone? Anyone at all?
See photo above moron
From the video that “disappeared”?
John Sullivan.
https://nypost.com/2021/01/07/known-antifa-members-posed-as-pro-trump-to-infiltrate-capitol-riot-sources/
The New York Post? MAGA propaganda. Dismissed.
I really don’t give a shit what you dismiss. Hell, you believe the NYT, WaPo, MSNBC and CNN… what the f**k do YOU know?
A lot more than you, clearly.
Clearly you know nothing but the approved propaganda. Why didn’t you know about the ANTIFA people there?
The ANTIFA guy from the video that “disappeared”?
Who disappeared?
They did not break down the front door they broke a window to the shitter.
Imagine how shitty your guy had to be as president to make that happen!
OOOh good one did it need your extra chromosome?
Thry found your news feed
Study Completed last month which lists the top internet sites who have been caught printing the most LIES, Misinformation and Disinformation. Avoid them at all Costs if you are looking for truth in the media.
CNN
Washington Post
Media Matters
NY Times
NPR
MSNBC
Atlantic
ABC News
BBC
NBC News
Huffington Post
CBS News
Politico
Hey… where’s Epoch Times?
You see faux is missing but I bet it was in the top 20.
According to the lawsuit, Mr. Byrd fired his Glock 22 .40-caliber pistol, striking Ms. Babbitt in the left shoulder, then announced that he was being fired upon and was ready to return fire.
“In fact, no shots were fired at Lt. Byrd or his fellow officers,” the lawsuit stated. “The only shot fired was the single shot Lt. Byrd fired at Ashli. He heard the loud noise of the gunshot. He saw her fall backward from the window frame.”
The Epoch Times reached out to Capitol Police and Mr. Byrd’s attorney for comment on the lawsuit and its allegations. Mr. Byrd is now a captain with U.S. Capitol Police.
A few minutes prior to the shooting, a police dispatcher mistakenly reported, “They’re taking shots into the House floor.”
“Lt. Byrd erroneously believed and acted on a false radio call and/or false report of shots fired on the House floor occurring before he left the House floor and moved across the Speaker’s Lobby to the adjacent Retiring Room,” the suit said.
“A reasonably prudent officer in Lt. Byrd’s position would have been aware that, in fact, the report was false and the sound heard on the House floor was glass breaking, not shots fired,” the lawsuit alleged.
Tell me that if these assholes were breaking down your front door you wouldn’t shoot, and I’ll call you a liar.
Who’s the jackass that gave Ashley Babbitt a boost through the window? He basically lifted the girl in front of a pointing gun after someone outside had already shouted a warning. No curiosity about that, I guess.
Who’s the jackass that gave Ashley Babbitt a boost through the window?
Capitol police?
Her blood is on your cult leader’s hands. He’ll do it all again, if he gets half a chance.
Her blood is on Byrd’s hands. The fact that she got screwed out of justice is on Pelosi’s hands. Democrats are trashy scum.
Ashli Babbitt posed no threat to any of the LEO’s on duty. To the contrary and as Representative Higgins explained to Tucker Carlson, she should have been taken into custody with some wrist wrap cuffs and processed.
It was not necessary to use lethal force. The investigation of byrd was a whitewashing of the truth. His time will come.
Is that your final answer? Prove it.
Congressional investigations estimate 200 imbedded assets, some inside the capitol before the doors were opened and “rioters” were invited in.
First of all: MAGA estimates with no investigation involved, you mean. Where’s the list of names?
Second of all: of course law enforcement was present, you dingdong.
Now, wouldn’t it be great if the FBI would finally comply with House requests for that very information? However, the FBI itself confirms the number, also saying they had so many there they lost track of them.
Even if, for the sake of discussion, that were true, nobody forced MAGAs to break the law. That’s on them.
No one says anyone did. What a totally stupid premise.
Its all going to be so shocking when your news sources are forced to report this. Like they were with Epstein and Hunter.
That there were more unsavory FBI agents than Wittmer kidnappers.
Democrats have no problem with that. The ends justifies the means, the means being cheating and fascism.
byrd is a scumbag murderer. He intentionally shot an unarmed woman in cold blood.
F*ck your lying memes, f*ck the rioters, and f*ck Trump. He brings this kind of chaos to try to unlawfully retain office, and you want him back? F*ck that, too. We’ve already seen Trump Part 1. Nobody wants Trump Part 2.
Fuck you, liar. You care more for a grifter in Ukraine than you do about American citizens that served in our military for the sake of your traitorous ass.
American veterans who try to overturn the results of an election will not be thanked for that particular service.
Never heard that from you or any other lying, crybaby, racist leftist when BLM/ANTIFA were destroying city after city. In fact, in many cases, if the police DID intercede, they got sued and punished.
So, here is the fact. First, you condone violence. You condone political violence intended to intimidate, terrorize and force submission. You don’t think anyone else has a right to have their own opinions, voice their views or protest. You, as a fascist leftist, think you control who gets to think or do anything.
Well, guess what: you don’t. You also don’t determine who lives or dies. Byrd should be in jail (and Chavin should not) and, hopefully, if there is a changing of the guard in DC to one that actually respects the law, he WILL find himself the object of justice.
Bring back Trump, law enforcement, economic prosperity, border security and national respect. Throw Robin Ware/Robert L. Peters/JRB Ware/Pedo Peter/idiot Biden and his criminal family in jail and let their fellow inmates f*ck THEM.
Well… they DO and they don’t care.
Maybe you should use the word allegedly,
Nobody wants Trump Part 2.
Have you peeked at the polls and turn out at the rallies?
Dont like memes?
So why aren’t you showing anyone the video? Doesn’t that seem like the obvious question?
For the same reason a DA doesn’t show his evidence to the public.
Damn man, are you on a quest to continue proving you’re an idiot.
I complained to a neighbor a while back about how belligerent some drivers are in the local roundabout. He said most aren’t actually belligerent—only stupid.
That’s probably true. But there are those that are both.
I agree, Comrade Greggie. You are too damn stupid to be allowed to drive.
To dumb to know his neighbor is dissin’ him.
Absolutely.
Most liars, like Comrade Greggie, and Michael the Groomer, are.
I have an even simpler answer: he doesn’t have that video. He just knows that you and your thinking-impaired herd will accept as God’s truth anything he says.
And are we to assume, groomer, that you have such a close relationship with Congressman Higgins that you can swear he would stoop to lying like a Democrat?
Are we to assume that you have such a close relationship with Higgins that you can swear he’s telling the truth, based on facts?
Valid question.
Im sure we will see many things when they release all the footage of J6, police body cam, security tapes.
Not just the 3 minutes released to the press.
Speaking of that, remind me why Johnson hasn’t already released the footage.
Since you are so smart and informed, how many hours has Johnson released and how many more are there?
And what did the J6 Committee do with all the testimony and evidence it now seems to have misplaced?
You should ask him that.
Ongoing investigation. Speaking of THAT, why did the J6 committee destroy evidence?
It was necessary to destroy anything that was the least bit exculpatory, because it would be contrary to the narrative. Judas pence still in the game for the other side:
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/07/pence-the-fbi-did-not-play-role-jan-6-riot-00134186
There is no statute of limitations on murder. He’s not always going to have a democrat controlled DOJ to protect him.
Congress at a minimum should conduct an investigation in order to provide a criminal referral to a Trump Admin DOJ post January 20,2025.
I guess she should have complied, then.
The Epoch Times is to be dismissed with as much or more prejudice as you dismiss actual newsgathering outlets.
What “actual” newsgathering outlets?
The ones being sued for lying? Those are Mikeys reliable sources.
The ones that have been EXPOSED for lying. It’s the lies they seek. The truth scares the living shit out of them.
Why?
Just Meme Greg til he cries then Meme about him crying. 😉
greg has nothing but platitudes and boilerplates. His bit is old and stale just like his pudding brain president.
I think he has a yeast infection.
Lets feed him tons of sugar I hear that helps.
Let’s get it rolling.
More…
Oh, he “cooperated with the FBI”, alright.
Let it lay……Let Mr. Byrd think it’s all “water under the bridge”…..Let him get comfortable going out in public. Then exact JUSTICE.
Austin was awol and should be immediately fired along with half a dozen underlings.
The world is laughing at us. How embarrassing.
We’ll have to see if he still has an Adam’s Apple and what his new pronouns are.
This animal is a rabid racist who has numerous incidents of recklessness and violence. He needs to be put down. If ever there was a clear cut case of murder.