The Jan 6 thread was locked down, so I’m bringing this info here in case anyone was curious.
The woman who was shot was apparently shot by secret service. Link incoming–it’s not all that graphic, it focuses on the SS agent’s hands/gun as it fires and you see the woman fall out of the window to the ground. Still NSFL. Link is to Twitter that has another layer of “are you sure you wanna watch this” so proceed at your own risk.
Not graphic description:
The SS agents are recorded from the outside of a doorway through smashed glass. Visible clearly is a jumble of furniture as a make-shift barricade on the SS side of the door.
IT IS CLEAR THIS IS A HARD BOUNDARY AND WARNINGS WERE GIVEN, both by the SS and by some of the more level-headed rioters. Police officers are working their way up the stairs on the rioter’s side of the door. The woman pushes her body through the barricade via a broken window and you see an SS agent take an angled shot nearly parallel to the door at the point of entry. I believe if it were a through-and-through the bullet would be on the SS barricade side of the doorway.
The SS agents are protecting their assignments who are hunkered directly behind the agents. The agent fires one deliberate and decisive shot. It is not a “police” style customary burst of fire. One very controlled shot.
The fella in light blue was interviewed after the incident and said they were clearly warned not to cross that barrier and he was trying to pull her back as she advanced. So there appears to be very clear warning that was ignored.
I am posting this because the Jan 6 thread contained a lot of back and forth speculating it was an accidental discharge.
It was not.
There was also bickering about the lethal force of police officers on an unarmed rioter.
It was not.
This was lethal force as the final layer of security was breached, which I assume is protocol.
I would call this a failing of the DC Police for allowing the rioters to get past THEIR layers of security.
Someone broke it down to me like this:
For Biden’s inauguration, he will be covered by Secret Security, assisted by the DC police. The DC police will control perimeters and hopefully stop any aggressors before they penetrate their layer of security. However, if they succeed, they will be met by lethal force by SS agents, whose job is only to stop threats against their assignments.
This appears to be what happened yesterday–the woman was advancing on the final layer of security and crossed the barrier physically into the safe-space where Congresspersons were sheltering.
For whatever it’s worth, the woman was apparently identified as Ashli Babbitt and is an Air Force veteran. She tweeted “nothing will stop us” shorty before breaking into the Capitol.
I am not advocating either way about who deserved what, I’m just reporting the data as I have found it and understand it. I will say that if I found myself in a situation where a “not fucking around” secret service agent had barred a door with furniture in a desperate attempt at protection, and he was telling me not to cross the fucking barrier, I probably wouldn’t cross the fucking barrier.