(PatrioticPost.com)- In an overlooked exchange during a February 25 House committee hearing on security failures during the January 6 melee at the Capitol, Acting House Sergeant at Arms Timothy Blodgett inadvertently mentioned the name of the officer who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt. Blodgett referred to the Capitol Police officer as “Officer Byrd.”
After it was discovered that Blodgett let the cat out of the bag, both CSPAN and CNN went back and removed his mention of Officer Byrd from the published transcript of the hearing.
Covering up the news is now apparently the job of news outlets.
For CNN this is particularly egregious. They are the outlet that wastes no time blasting the name of every police officer involved in a shooting. But when it comes to the Capitol Police officer who shot and killed an unarmed woman on January 6, CNN clams up.
It’s been over six months and still the US Capitol Police refuses to release the officer’s name. And as the USCP is under the control of Congress, Congress has exempted them from Freedom of Information Act requests – just as they exempted themselves.
In February, the USCP issued a press release promising to share “additional information once the investigation is complete.” But after the Justice Department closed their probe into Ashli Babbitt’s shooting back in April that cleared the officer of wrongdoing, the USCP continues to stonewall any requests for the shooter’s name.
Unsurprisingly, the rumor mill stepped into the void. One Capitol Hill Police Officer who had been honored by President Trump for his actions during the Alexandria ballpark shooting in 2017 was accused by several right-leaning websites of being the officer who shot and killed Babbitt.
This man was not the guy.
But when the facts are withheld, all that remains are rumors. Too many piled on to the wrong officer based on innuendo and false claims while the actual shooter’s name was spoken during that House hearing.
The officer named by Timothy Blodgett in February, Lt. Michael L. Byrd, was the same USCP officer who was investigated in 2019 for inadvertently leaving his service pistol in a restroom on the House side of the Capitol building. His service weapon, a Glock 22 handgun which fires .40-caliber rounds, had no safety. The abandoned weapon was fortunately quickly discovered by another officer during a routine security check.
The rounds used on Ashli Babbitt were from a Glock 22.
