A California doctor who treated the mortally wounded Ashli Babbitt after she was shot outside the House of Representatives on Jan. 6, 2021, was arrested by the FBI on four criminal charges stemming from his time at the U.S. Capitol.
Dr. Austin Brendlen Harris, 42, of Granada Hills, California, was arrested on Jan. 25 in Van Nuys, California.
Harris was charged in a criminal complaint in Washington D.C. with knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds without authority and disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds—both misdemeanors with sentences of up to a year in jail. He was also charged with disorderly conduct and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building—both misdemeanors.
Harris operates NeuroRelief Ketamine & Infusion Therapy in Sherman Oaks, California. He’s a board-certified cardiothoracic anesthesiologist.
Harris treated Babbitt’s gunshot wound for four minutes after U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd shot her at about 2:45 p.m. that day. When Babbitt fell from the window frame she was climbing into, Harris stepped forward from the hallway crowd to provide aid.
A video journalist with medic training also tended to Babbitt before police drove both men from the hallway outside of the Speaker’s Lobby.
Officer Shoves Doctor
The visibly angry officer kept pushing Harris and the two struggled down the hallway. It’s impossible to hear what was said between the men because the crowd was yelling at the police.“You did that! You did that!” one protester shouted. “You guys shot her!”
Harris went back and asked the officer to retrieve his medical bag, which was still sitting next to Babbitt. The officer handed it back to him.
After Harris left the scene, police carried Babbitt head-first down the steps to the south entrance, where an FBI medic and others tried to keep her alive while a rescue squad was en route. She was pronounced dead at a Washington hospital at 3:15 p.m.
According to the statement of facts filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, Harris entered the Capitol at 2:15 p.m. through the Senate Wing doors and headed for the Crypt, which is one level below the Rotunda.
“He attempted to bypass the line of officers and appeared to engage in a verbal confrontation with officers,” the charging document said.
A few minutes earlier, Harris was on the Lower West Terrace next to the inauguration platform. “He can be overheard comparing the officers to Nazis,” the statement read. The document didn’t include a direct quote or provide details on who heard the comment.
Prosecutors included a screen capture of a post from Harris’s Facebook page. In the post, Harris said he spent the day “treating trauma patients at the Capitol building.”
He also expressed his belief that the chaos in the Capitol was caused by “Antifa dressed up like Trump supporters.”
“It is a false-flag event to allow even more oppression of conservatives,” he wrote. “I am so sad for our country. So much deceit, such a craving for absolute power by the swamp establishment has led to our election integrity becoming a joke, that a 90-pound unarmed woman was gunned down by Capitol Police being absolutely no threat.”
