Red Flags Surround Indiana J6 Police-Involved Shooting

[XLFD]

Let this reporter acknowledge his own bias at the forefront, in that he believes the approximately 1500 people held for years in federal prisons and similar gulag facilities were for the most part political prisoners, most held just for being part of a riot likely prompted by embedded feds, many guilty only of going through doors that were already wide open, some only guilty of being given guided tours by willing Capitol police officers.  I fully believe President Trump properly used his pardon powers in absolving the vast majority of J6 defendants who appear to have received excessively cruel and unusual punishment just for being part of a protest gone awry.

On that day, a Capitol policeman shot and killed Ashli Babbitt in what seems to be in cold blood from the video preserved of that incident.  This policeman, Michael Byrd, who went against all protocols in the murder, would be elevated to hero status by the media and the partisan J6 Committee.  As he doesn't appear to have been preemptively pardoned by Biden, he may face justice one day.  In all fairness, I must also declare bias against police officers who kill people by not following proper police procedures.

And that's why I find a recent story interesting about what happened down in Indiana, where a recently pardoned J6 man (Matthew Huttle, pictured below) was shot during a traffic stop by a county deputy and the official story doesn't hold up very well.  Here's the general summary of the incident as found in several media outlets, that rely primarily on the county sheriff's press release:

FOX 32 Chicago reports:  JASPER COUNTY, Ind. - A northwest Indiana man who was charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol building was shot and killed by an Indiana sheriff's deputy during a traffic stop Sunday afternoon.

The shooting happened at 4:15 p.m. Sunday January 26 during a traffic stop on State Road 14, east of County Road 475 E, near the Pulaski County line.

During the traffic stop, a Jasper County sheriff's deputy attempted to arrest the suspect, but the suspect resisted, officials said.

"An altercation took place between the suspect and the officer, which resulted in the officer firing his weapon and fatally wounding the suspect," the Jasper County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

Further investigation revealed the suspect was armed with a gun during the traffic stop.  

The Jasper County Coroner's Office identified him as 42-year-old Matthew W. Huttle of Hobart, Indiana.

Huttle was charged with misdemeanor offenses after trespassing into the Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021.

The Northwest Indiana Times reported Huttle was charged with recording his entry into the Capitol's Senate Wing and walking through several locations inside. Security footage was captured of Huttle on the first floor of the Capitol.

He was sentenced to six months in federal prison before he was released on July 17, the paper reported.

What they're saying:

Jasper County Sheriff Patrick Williamson released the following statement on the shooting: "For full transparency, I requested the Indiana State Police to investigate this officer involved shooting. The officer that is involved has been placed on paid administrative leave, which is standard protocol and is our policy in these situations. Our condolences go out to the family of the deceased as any loss of life is traumatic to those that were close to Mr. Huttle. I will release the officer's name once I have approval from the State Police Detectives."

ANALYSIS:  The first red flag is that there still has not been any dash cam or body cam videos released.  If these are still being held more than 48 hours after the fact, you can almost guarantee that the footage does not help the official line.  

The second red flag is that we have been given no reason for why the traffic stop was made.  A deputy cannot just make a traffic stop without a reason, and the fact that this was not readily available in the release indicates that the deputy is likely to have conducted an unlawful traffic stop.

The third red flag is that there was no underlying charge revealed that indicated the deputy was making a lawful arrest.  When the only charge in the release is resisting an arrest, one has to wonder just what the person was being arrested for in the first place.  Was the pardon so fresh that the police's information network still had an outstanding warrant out on Huttle for his J6 involvement?

According to the Justice Department's recap of what happened on J6, 2021 with the deceased:  "Matthew Huttle made his way into the Capitol Building at approximately 2:58 p.m., entering through doors next to the Senate Wing. He is believed to have exited the building briefly before re-entering at about 3:06 p.m. and remaining inside for another 10 minutes."

In other words, he was never accused of anything more than entering already-breached doors at the Capitol Building and served approximately 3 years in prison for the minor infraction.  Michael Huttle did not devolve into violence on January 6, 2021, and one would think he would not have done so on January 26, 2025.  The Ludington Torch believes that if and when the truth comes out on this, this unfortunate soul will be vindicated.

PJ Media would go further, and view Huttle’s death as part of a larger pattern of targeting Trump supporters, and suggest it has led to speculation about whether this was a tragic coincidence or something more sinister. Recent reports suggest that some judges have been pushing back on Trump’s pardons, refusing to dismiss the cases against various defendants.  Perhaps one of these rogue judges crafted new warrants for J6ers to continue their pattern of harassment.

[Willy]

Very interesting. I never thought of the possibility that leftist judges would try and keep the j6 incident on the burner by messing with the pardoned j6 defendants. A lot of corruption from the Feds has been revealed. I don't think the Left is going away or will ever slow down their attempt to bring the U.S. to it's knees. To many globalists are involved and benefit  in our destruction and they will never stop until that is accomplished. Any student of history can see that humans seem to be more resigned to be under a monarchy style of governance. It's been that way since we came out of the trees and walked across the savanna.

[XLFD]

Although your average J6er was 50% less likely to have a criminal record than the general adult population, about 350 of the 1600 had prior criminal records previously to the Capitol riot.  If any of the pardoned get into any kind of trouble, expect it to be magnified by the media with the basic intent and purpose to damage President Trump.

Many of these people have had their lives ruined by the Biden "Justice" Department, lost four years of their life, and once we discover the closeted facts of that afternoon in question, I predict reasonable people all over will see the evil that was done to these political prisoners.

[RK Hubbard]

You forgot to mention that Mr. Huttle did 2 1/2 years in prison for beating his own son, had an extensive history of driving offenses dating back to at least 2005 including a DUI conviction, had been arrested at least four times since the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, had five charges still pending in court, violated his pretrial release conditions, possessed an illegal firearm during the traffic stop (felon in possession), and was previously charged with resisting law enforcement, attempted aggravated battery and domestic battery. I'm glad he's dead and not the officer. 

[XLFD]

I didn't forget to mention that, but information on his priors weren't in the early sources, and if they were, they would not have erased any of the red flags.  Much of what you add is in the Indy Star, but what you fail to mention (and many other people biased against Huttle) is that the attempted battery, R&O and domestic battery were charges that were dismissed against him, and the other recent unadjudicated charges would lead one to believe that county deputies were possibly targeting him for harassment.  

Authorities have finally stated that this was a traffic stop for speeding, but still no explanation as to how it became a fatal incident.  At this point I have to add on another red flag that the second wave of articles on Huttle are distinctly pointing him to be a boogeyman, rather than a potential victim, and rather than produce the bodycam videos that would presumably show that to be true, the authorities clutch them tighter and allow this information to freely flow against Huttle's character.

[RK Hubbard]

It is likely (your favorite word) that Huttle copped a plea on those dismissed charges. He still beat up his little boy and went to prison for it, he continued to break the law after his conviction, he was a felon in possession of a gun, and he busted his parole restrictions. Authorities are not "allowing" the "free flow of information" about Huttle's character. It is in the public records due to his many arrests and court cases. Huttle was a constant danger to the public and even his own family. If he had killed the officer in the fight, we would have had one less trooper and one more convict to support. 

[XLFD]

I thought my favorite word to use was 'perhaps'.

Anyhow, I think you are overplaying the hand against a man who was killed, where a week after, we still don't know any details of his killing.  It's been sad that the media did not make a big deal about the cold-blooded murder of Ashli Babbitt on January 6th caught on camera, instead they lionized the murderer as some sort of hero.  It is likely that they will do the same here for the police officer, even if the camera footage is preserved and shows the officer acted badly.

We will just have to wait and see since the Indiana government wants to hide the footage from us for fear of what it portrays.

[RK Hubbard]

Huttle, a convicted violent felon with a long police record, was shot because he resisted arrest while armed with an illegal gun. Ashley Babbitt, armed with a knife, was shot by an on-duty capitol police officer while trying to assault members of Congress. Neither case meets the definition of "murder." 

[XLFD]

'Armed' and 'murder' both have breadth in their definitions.  DC forensics found a 3-inch folding knife in one of Babbitt's pockets, so they say she was armed, they could say the same about Huttle in this case if he had someone else's unloaded gun in a gun case in his trunk.

We know Babbitt never brandished her knife during her time at the Capitol, so we have to review whether her killer, Michael Byrd, had a lawful reason to shoot her, given the circumstances.  Biden's Justice Department exonerated him, but he violated a couple of use of force protocols that in my opinion, make him a cold-blooded murderer.

Had Byrd missed Babbitt, the bullet could have easily struck a more heavily armed officer, one of those who moved away from defending the doors and stationed themselves behind Babbitt.  I've never understood the reason why those officers moved aside and allowed some bad actors to breach that entrance.  Sadly, the choreography of that day has never been officially explored, just put into a partisan narrative.

[RK Hubbard]

Oxford English Dictionary definition of "murder:" the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another.

Legal definition: 

• Intention: The killer must have the necessary intention as defined by the law. 
• Malice: The killer must have malice aforethought, which means they intended to kill or cause grievous bodily harm. 
• Unlawful: The killing must be without lawful justification or excuse. 

Officer Byrd's justification for shooting Ms. Babbitt was the protection of members of Congress, which was his primary job. His actions meet neither the English language definition nor the legal definition of murder. His actions were not malicious, not premeditated, and found to be lawful by authorities. When you are trained as a police officer and issued a gun, you are expected to use it when necessary. The January 6th Report by the Select Committee provides a detailed description of the events of that day. Several books have also been written, so the facts are in the public record. 

[XLFD]

The law on use of deadly force by law enforcement is very clear. In layman’s terms it requires that the officer must hold an objectively reasonable belief that the suspect poses an imminent threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or other innocent parties.  In this case it is patently clear that Byrd is legally obligated to act like every other police officer.  

Read the Supreme Court cases of Graham v. Connor, Tennessee v Garner and Scott v Harris and their progeny. The 4th Amendment’s objective reasonableness standard applies to Byrd and his action.  The DOJ went out of their way to avoid this concept in Byrd's case, and their bias becomes a lot clearer when they would later engage in extreme lawfare against a presidential candidate who would win, based largely on the persecution waged by this same DOJ and their prosecuting allies in Blue districts.

The videos of the incident make me side towards murder in this instance, and it follows your definition.  

[RK Hubbard]

Byrd was protecting members of Congress against an armed mob while Congress was in session, the mob was breaking down the doors to the Speaker's lobby, chanting to hang the vice president, and Congress members were being rushed to a safe location by armed guards. Case closed. 

[XLFD]

Can you tell me then why Ohio cop Connor Grubb is being charged with 4 counts of murder and 6 other felonies for shooting a pregnant woman who was in the process of running him over with her car? 

Byrd shot Babbit who was not carrying or wielding a weapon (a 3-inch pocketed pocketknife is not considered a weapon in DC) or posing any threat to him or others at the time.  At 5 ft. 2 and 132 lbs., Babbitt wasn't a threat and she was never given any warning from Byrd before he murdered her.