Retired Senior FBI Agent Robyn Gritz: Shot That Killed Ashli Babbitt ‘Not Justified’

[Suck My Glock]

I can see both sides of this;

1. Use of lethal force rules normally dictate that shooting an unarmed person is verboten unless that person is of significantly larger size to equate to a physical threat of disparaging force, but;

2. Mobs and riots are a beast all unto their own and potentially lethal, some describe a riotous mob as rabid animal needing to be put down, and;

3. When it comes to the task of protecting the Congress and President, do rules even apply?


https://tennesseestar.com/2021/01/16/ex ... justified/

Gritz said Babbitt was acting inappropriately, but she was not endangering the life of the officer and she was about to make herself extremely vulnerable as she climbed through a broken window and then had to grapple over the tables and chairs barricaded up against the doors.

“Was anyone’s life in danger at that point?” she asked. “I don’t feel it was a justified shooting—just through the window. No one’s life was in danger. There’s a bunch of furniture in front of the door and window.”

The former FBI agent, who is now corporate security expert in private life and a senior fellow at the Washington-based Gold Institute for International Strategies, said, “It was just one person. She was obviously going to fall over the furniture that was blocking the door—and the officers should have had their cuffs out. They could have pepper sprayed her, there was no reason to use force.”

There were other officers in the lobby besides the shooting officer and they should have worked as a team to confront and apprehend Babbitt,” she said.

“I would have been yelling at her that I was going to arrest her—one person would have had a gun on her,” she said.

Gritz said all law enforcement officers are trained to evaluate a situation before using deadly force, because they are trained to only use deadly force whenever they pull the trigger. “People always ask me about warning shots. We don’t do warning shots.”

Potential blue-on-blue incident

Gritz said another reason why the shot was a tragic mistake is that at the same time Babbitt and her group were trying to enter the lobby, a element of Capitol Hill police officers in black tactical gear and long rifles were coming up the stairs directly behind Babbitt.

Those officers coming up the stairs could have been shot, she said.

“They were yelling because the officer who shot Babbitt could have easily shot one of them. Very easily. They were yelling: ‘Stand down! Stand down!’” she said.

“You almost had a blue-on-blue situation,” she said.

“He took the shot with Capitol Police out there,” she said. “What about the radio comms? The shooter darn well those guys were coming up the stairs—it would be very interesting to get the radio transmission of what was going on.”

[Flash]

They should try that guy on murder 2.

[YNOTAZ]

They should try that guy on murder 2.

I agree and at least, If nothing else negligent manslaughter. Neither him nor anyone else was in immanent danger, he had an escape route with several other "guards" behind him he felt secure enough to step out from behind cover right in front of the protesters, appears to have given no command or warnings and fired. If he were a street cop, or she was black, he'd be in jail.

[smithers599]

Yep. That was plain old murder. No gray area.

"Ashli Babbitt. Say her name."