According to several reports, police in Washington, DC, said they had not discovered sufficient evidence to accuse the Capitol police officer who shot dead a riot in the building on January 6.
However, the authorities warn that the investigation into the incident is still ongoing and that no recommendation is made to prosecutors whether they should file the charge against the unknown officer.
Ashli Babbitt, 35, died after being shot by officers as she climbed through a broken window leading to the Speaker’s lobby in the Capitol during a siege. The incident was captured on video and widely circulated.
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, DC, said it would be premature for the department to comment that any conclusion had been reached, according to The New York Times.
The U.S. Department of Justice said the opening of the investigation into Babbitt’s death was the standard procedure in cases where officers used lethal force against a member of the public, reports The Wall Street Journal.
The officer was placed on leave pending the investigation.
The Times reported that Babbitt had served in the Air Force and the National Air Force for more than a decade. He saw a Trump 2020 flag as a cape in videos taken before her death.
She was one of several people who died as a result of the uprising at the Capitol on January 6, including two Capitol police officers and others who suffered medical incidents during the massive protest.
Authorities have arrested dozens of other suspects and charged in connection with the riots and are still searching for a suspect who, according to them, planted live pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic National Committees the night before the siege.