The half-brother of Ashli Babbitt, the lady who was fatally shot throughout the Jan. 6 riot on the US Capitol, has been accused of attacking and hurling racial slurs at a utility employee in California.
Roger Stefan Witthoeft Jr., 33, faces misdemeanor costs of battery with a hate crime enhancement and violating the sufferer’s constitutional rights by risk of pressure, the San Diego Union Tribune reported.
He pleaded not responsible at his March 1 arraignment in San Diego Superior Court.
Witthoeft allegedly shoved and tried to strike a San Diego Gas & Electric visitors controller in September whereas shouting “a number of racial slurs” on the Latino man — telling him to “Go back to your country, you f—- immigrant,” in keeping with the City Attorney’s Office.
The suspect is accused of asking the sufferer, whom he allegedly challenged to a struggle, “Why don’t you talk in English, you f— immigrant?”
He additionally allegedly shoved the person, swung at him and knocked off his arduous hat, in keeping with the report.
Witthoeft is the half-brother of Babbitt, 36, the Air Force veteran who was shot by a cop as she tried to enter the Speaker’s Lobby on Jan. 6, 2021, as a mob of President Donald Trump supporters had been storming the Capitol in an effort to disrupt the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election.
US Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd was cleared of any wrongdoing in Babbitt’s demise in an inside use-of-force probe.
The incident involving her brother passed off Sept. 14 when an SDG&E restore crew had arrange a roadblock that he occurred upon, prosecutors instructed the newspaper.
When the visitors controller instructed Witthoeft in regards to the highway closure, he received out of his car and “verbally and physically confronted the worker,” prosecutors stated.
Witthoeft has instructed the New York Times that he and different members of the family labored with Babbitt at Fowler’s Pool Service & Supply Inc., which she and her husband, Aaron, owned.
Aaron told FOX 5 on Wednesday that Witthoeft is her half-brother and that the 2 had been estranged for a number of months previous to her demise.
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