The death of Air Force veteran Ashli Babbit at the hands of a Capitol Hill Police officer last Wednesday is either murder or manslaughter.
Anyone who has ever taken a Concealed Carry Weapons class knows that you can only use deadly force–i.e. shoot someone with a pistol–in order to prevent the imminent and otherwise unavoidable danger of death or grave bodily harm to yourself or a bystander.
Ashli Babbit did not have a weapon of any kind in hand or on her person. She was not assaulting the officer. Yet the officer fired. No excuse under the circumstances visible on the video of the incident.
It is possible that the guilty officer (yes, he’s guilty of shooting an unarmed person, that’s a fact) will be charged with involuntary manslaughter–i.e., he stupidly put his finger on the trigger and fired accidentally. Maybe he did not mean to do it, but under the law if you fire a gun you
