B-1 83 said:
Without combing through pages of replies, am I the only one who thinks her wearing a backpack may have set the cop off more than had she not had one? For how many years have we heard of backpacks with weapons or explosives. I'm not defending the cop, just throwing it out for discussion.
Problem with that, Byrd never saw the backpack, all she got through the window was her head and he shot her in the neck just below the jawline. She immediately fell backwards into the arms of the plain clothed CHPD officer that was right behind her. Byrd just panicked plain and simple. He didn't clearly identify his target, never checked his line of fire because there were CHPD officers behind her and a complete response team coming up the stairs directly behind her. both her hands were visible on the window frame because she was trying to pull herself through the window, so it was easy to tell she had nothing in her hands. Byrd panicked plain and simple.
Notice the back of the head of the clean cut guy, that's a CHPD in plain clothes.
She fell back into this CHPD officer's arms and he helped lay her down to render her aide
Here the plain clothed CHPD is rendering her aide and you see part of the response team to his left. They were all behind her and seven other members on the stairs.
That area is a landing on the stair well leading into the Speakers wing as the call it.
Lt. Michael Byrd, the officer who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt, was reprimanded in 2018 for leaving his loaded sidearm unattended in a public Capitol Visitor's Center bathroom.
Check out this photo from a few minutes earlier
Minutes after this photo, Lt. Byrd shot and killed Ashli Babbitt. This officer clearly has very poor muzzle discipline and in my personal opinion his use of lethal force against Ashli Babbitt was unjustified.
People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because hard men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.