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Video shows officer striking motionless woman on ground during Capitol riot, expert questions cause of death

April 30, 2022 | | Print Article

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Just-obtained bodycam footage from the Jan. 6th riot appears to show a D.C. police officer striking an alleged rioter, Rosanne Boyland, with a large wooden stick once in the ribs and twice in the head as she’s lying motionless on the ground.

Boyland later died. The D.C. medical examiner claimed she died because of an overdose of Adderall. Some suspect otherwise.

According to use-of-force expert Stanley Kephart, a 42-year law enforcement veteran and former director of the security for the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, the actions of D.C. police officer Lila Morris were 100 percent illegal.

“Kephart, upon reviewing the [surveillance] footage, concluded that the three full-force blows by D.C. police officer Lila Morris constituted a felony assault with intent to cause great bodily harm. Kephart called Morris’s use of force ‘indefensible’ and the internal-affairs investigation of Boyland’s death a ‘clear and convincing coverup,'” according to The Epoch Times.

Watch the footage below (*Graphic content):

According to Kephart, police are trained not to strike suspects in the head, but something caused Morris to ignore that training.

“I believe two things were in operation here. One was anger at this person [Boyland]. That was overridden by fear. And those two elements were the causal connection between what was done to the person by the officer and the result,” he told the Times.

“If you have a trained officer who is angry at what the crowd is doing and the crowd rises up and puts him in a position where he feels his personal safety is compromised, fear begins to take over the anger, and the reflexive response throws the training right out the window.”

The Metropolitan Police Department has for its part denied that anything untoward occurred.

“The matter involving Officer Morris was previously brought to our attention and reviewed thoroughly. This review included her body-worn camera footage, and did not substantiate the allegations you have outlined,” a department spokesperson told the Times.

If anything, far from being disciplined, Morris instead wound up receiving recognition. She, along with two other D.C. officers, were invited to attend this year’s Super Bowl in Tampa, Florida, where they were subsequently honored for their alleged heroism.

Conversely, one of the rioters who’d “allegedly used the same wooden stick to strike and jab at police in the terrace tunnel was charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon,” according to the Times.

Meanwhile, a separate investigation conducted by Boyland’s family has found that she died of manual asphyxia, not an overdose of a medication she’d been prescribed.

“An independent forensic pathologist hired by the Boyland family contends that her cause of death wasn’t an overdose of the prescription drug Adderall … but manual asphyxia. Boyland was crushed under a pile of people when police gassed protesters and pushed them out of the [Capitol’s Lower West Terrace] tunnel at about 4:20 p.m. on Jan. 6,” according to the Times.

Afterward, the authorities “ignored dozens of pleas to help Boyland after she collapsed.” Not til 10 minutes later was she “pulled inside the building” so that EMS personnel could begin “life-saving efforts that ultimately failed,” thanks in part, it would appear, to unexplained delays.

“Boyland was put on an IV and given epinephrine every four minutes to stimulate her heart. The rescue squad requested approval to depart for The George Washington University Hospital at 5:10 p.m. ‘Authorization was not granted,’ read a summary of records obtained by the Boyland family,” according to the Times.

“The records don’t indicate why the ambulance wasn’t allowed to leave the Capitol for a half-hour after requesting approval. A message from The Epoch Times left at the D.C. Metro Fire and EMS Department hasn’t been returned.”

This is not the only discrepancy with the original autopsy.

“The original autopsy didn’t note any evidence of injury, except for a four-inch bruise on her right forearm. However, bodycam footage of Boyland being dragged from the tunnel entrance at 4:31 p.m. shows what appears to be a wound on her forehead. Another bodycam view seems to show a long red mark starting on the lower section of her left rib cage,” the Times notes.

Furthermore, according to Boyland’s friend Justin Winchell, who was present with her at the Capitol, she’d developed a nosebleed after being hit by Morris .

“She is laid out, maybe dead at this point, but they hit her at least two times in the body. And then they hit her once in the face, once right here in her nose, and some blood started coming out of her nose,” he told the Times.

Critics like conservative commentator Julie Kelly believe that these unaccounted for discrepancies may explain why the Biden administration has been slow-walking the release of footage from the Jan. 6th riot.

Vivek Saxena
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