Police in Washington, DC, say they have not found enough evidence to accuse the Capitol police officer who shot and killed a rioter in the building on January 6, according to several reports.
The authorities warned, however, that the investigation of the incident is still ongoing and no recommendations have been made to prosecutors about the possibility of filing charges against the unidentified police officer.
Ashli Babbitt, 35, died after being shot by the officer while climbing a broken window that led to the speaker’s lobby on the Capitol during the siege. The incident was captured on video and widely publicized.
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, DC, said it “would be premature” for the department “to make any comment that any conclusions have been reached,” according to The New York Times.
The United States Department of Justice said opening an investigation into Babbitt’s death was the standard procedure in cases where police officers use lethal force against a member of the public, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The officer was put on leave pending the investigation.
Babbitt served in the Air Force and the National Air Guard for more than a decade, the Times reported, and was seen wearing a Trump 2020 flag as a cover in videos taken before his death.
She was one of several people who died as a result of the Capitol insurrection on January 6, including two Capitol police officers and others who suffered medical events near the big demonstration.
Authorities arrested and charged dozens of other suspects in the riots and are still looking for a suspect who, they said, planted live-bombs outside the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic National Committees the night before the siege.