Information is still scarce regarding the police-involved shooting of Ashli Babbitt during the Jan. 6 Capitol riots despite pressure from Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla.
''We aren’t being told anything after multiple letters'' to the FBI, the Metro Police Department, ''through numerous conversations with different law enforcement agencies,'' Steube said Wednesday while appearing on Newsmax’s ''American Agenda.''
Babbitt, an Air Force veteran and Florida resident, was shot by a Capitol police officer as she attempted to enter restricted parts of the U.S. Capitol. Federal prosecutors closed the investigation into her death in April with no charges filed and without naming the officer who shot her, prompting criticism and comparisons to transparency with which authorities have handled other police-involved shootings.
The Capitol Police force, unlike D.C. police, are not required to release the names of officers involved in deaths or serious uses of force.
Steube says that need to change.
''The American people and certainly members of Congress that were here on Jan. 6 should be given the information as to the details of the investigation and how they came to their conclusion,'' he told Newsmax.
Not naming the officer in this instance, he said, is unlike other police-involved shootings in the U.S., where ''you know the name of the officer involved, you know the agency involved, you know the timeline of the investigation. The mainstream media is covering all of the information as it relates to that officer-involved shooting, especially if it has some type of tinge to a racist aspect between the differences between the two races, which to me shouldn’t matter.
''It should be ‘did the officer have the ability to shoot?’ If so, yes or no, and if they do an investigation what’s the outcome of that investigation and make that outcome public so that the public knows and has assurance in their law enforcement agencies and that the family of the victim or individual involved knows the circumstances of the incident.''
Babbitt's husband, Aaron, is suing to get the officer’s name.
His lawyer, Terrell Roberts, told Fox News on Tuesday that he believes the officer’s identity is being hidden because they don’t ''have a good explanation for this shooting.
''I think if Ashli Babbitt had been brandishing a firearm and she was shot, the officer would be identified by now and they’d be pinning a medal on him,'' he said.
''So I don’t think we have a good explanation for this shooting, and that’s why they haven’t identified him.''
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Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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