Three Fatal Medical Emergencies and One Shooting on Capitol Grounds

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The three people who died from medical emergencies during the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 experienced those emergencies while on the grounds of the Capitol, Acting Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Chief Robert J. Contee III said during a Jan. 7 situational update.

A woman was also fatally shot inside of the Capitol. The Washington Post identified her as 35-year-old Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt. 

Chief Contee said on Wednesday that she was shot by a U.S. Capitol Police Officer. 

Multiple people forced their way into the Capitol building and tried to gain access to the house room, which was still in session, he said. They were confronted by plain clothed U.S. Capitol Police officers, one of whom discharged their service weapon, striking the woman. She was taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead.

“I’m upset that my police officers were put in harm’s way when they were just doing their jobs,” Mayor Muriel Bowser said during the next day’s situational update. “And I’m even upset that somebody died in that building who was breaking into the building. We should all be upset about all of those things.”

During the update, Chief Contee also took time to update the public on arrests made by the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) related to the unrest.

Sixty-eight people were arrested during the evening of Jan. 6 into the early morning hours of Jan. 7, he said. Forty-one of those arrests happened on Capitol grounds and, to his knowledge, only one of those arrested was from DC. Sixty of those arrested were adult males and eight were adult females.

Andrea Keckley wrote this article

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