Cops clear officer who beat Jan. 6 protester with stick, baton as she died

New Jersey National Guard soldiers and airmen arrive near the Capitol to set up security positions in Washington, D.C., Jan. 12, 2021. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Matt Hecht)

Police in Washington, D.C., have investigated the apparently violent beating of a Jan. 6 protester who already was on the ground by an officer with a stick and a baton, and have reported that violence was "objectively reasonable," according to a report by Just the News.

The investigation conclusion comes from the city's Metropolitan Police Department's Bureau of Internal Affairs.

The review revealed D.C. Officer Lila Morris beat Rosanne Boyland with a steel baton and "what appeared to be a wooden walking stick."

This was after the victim, of Kennesaw, Georgia, already was unconscious and on the ground on the day rioting erupted at the U.S. Capitol.

The Epoch Times said the review was conducted after a Texas man assembled video evidence of the officer beating on an "unconscious" woman.

That report described how Boyland, 34, was caught under a pile of protesters who fled when police started firing crowd-control gas.

Witnesses reported she lost consciousness and stopped breathing after several minutes of being crushed by other fallen protesters.

"As Boyland lay unconscious on the ground DC Metro Police Officer Lila Morris repeatedly struck her with a steel baton and what appeared to be a wooden walking stick, according to a video recording," the report said.

Was it "objectively reasonable" to violently beat a Jan. 6 protester who was already on the ground?

Her traveling companion, Justin Winchell, reportedly pleaded with police and protesters to provide first aid, and bodycam video "shows Winchell’s shock when he saw Morris strike Boyland in the head."

Video shows she appeared to be deceased when police dragged her from the West Terrace tunnel entrance into the Capitol, although it took more than an hour for that pronouncement to be made, the Epoch Times said.

Protesters repeatedly had performed CPR on her, but they were "frustrated in part by the beating and police spraying pepper spray into the faces of those trying to help," the report confirmed.

The medical examiner later claimed Boyland died of an accidental overdose of Adderall, the Times said.

Her family reported she's been under treatment with Adderall for years.

But the violence of the attack on an unconscious woman so bothered Gary McBride of Decatur, Texas, he filed a brutality complaint, hunting down video evidence.

But David K. Augustine, of the Metro department, said, "The use of force within this investigation was determined to be objectively reasonable. Officer Morris is still employed with the MPD and not facing criminal charges related to the use of force on January 6."

McBride warned of the dangerous precedent from the statement.

"It told me right there that it’s OK for them to do what they do. They are doing exactly what they want to do. They don’t care if you know or see. They just showed me that they’re going to go beat somebody and kill them, but they have the power to say, 'That was objectively reasonable.''

The report said the officer raised a "walking stick or a tree branch" over her head and hit Boyland at least four times, until the stick broke, and then she continued to strike at Boyland until "other officers pulled her back," the report said.

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