Why Did Metro DC Officer Go Unpunished After Beating Dying J6er?

Good Question. The Media Never Asked.

Trending on X Thursday was this line, “Old Video of Officer Striking Unconscious Jan. 6 Protester Divides Views on Her Death.” To assess this issue X led readers to Grok for an overview: “The clip from January 6, 2021, shows 34-year-old Trump supporter Rosanne Boyland collapsed outside a Capitol tunnel, with Officer Lila Morris striking her several times while protesters pushed against police.”

What Grok says is true enough. The real question is not so much how did Rosanne Boyland die, but how did Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Officer Lila Morris go unpunished. Morris, in fact, was awarded a trip to the Super Bowl. Two other officers accompanied her “in recognition of their heroism.” More on the infamous Mike Fanone and Daniel Hodges in a future column.

As to the victim of this sad saga, 34-year-old Rosanne Boyland, she and friend Justin Winchell left the Atlanta suburb of Kennesaw, Georgia, for DC, a drive of ten or so hours, on the night of January 5.

The text exchanges between Rosanne’s father, Bret Boyland, and Winchell were upbeat. “We are heading to the Capitol building with the masses of patriots. Hope you are having a great one. We are doing you proud,” read one of Winchell’s texts.

When things started getting crazy, Bret texted Winchell, “You guys probably should leave and go do some sightseeing, or something.” At 4 p.m., always a father, Bret texted, “6 p.m. curfew, better get out shortly.” At 4:30 p.m., Winchell texted Bret, “Please call me. I need to talk to you about Rosanne. She’s been hurt.

Many of the protestors witnessed Rosanne’s death. They all told the same story. Although some believe Rosanne was murdered by the police, the authorities interviewed no witnesses, took no crime scene photos, did no forensic testing.

The action took place in and around the Capitol’s notorious lower west terrace tunnel. About ten feet wide and fifteen feet long, the tunnel led, on the interior end, to two sets of glass double doors marked, “Members Entrance Only.” The exterior end led to temporary stairs that descended to the recently erected inauguration stage.

That the police would engage in a life and death struggle at one entrance for two hours while many other entrances were wide open raises questions. Incompetence might explain the uneven police response. So, too, might entrapment. A prolonged battle at such an easily accessible spot made for good visuals.

By the time Rosanne was killed, around 4:30 p.m., all members of Congress had long since vacated. Capitol Police Chief Steve Sund had called for National Guard help more than three three hours prior. Had their deployment not been derailed, Rosanne would still be alive.

No one was closer to Rosanne at her moment of death than Philip Anderson. Like many others, Anderson found himself at the tunnel entrance. Justin Winchell and Rosanne were there as well, swept into the swarm without their willing it.

White supremacist Philip Anderson

Without intending, Anderson and Boyland entered the tunnel side by side. When the police made a concerted surge to drive back the protestors—what protestor Kim Sorgente called “a synchronized chemical attack, then a charge”—the protestors tumbled backwards.

The chemical irritant sprayed by the MPD displaced the oxygen in the tunnel, causing people to feel faint. Rosanne collapsed at the tunnel entrance. “After the police gassed us, everyone turned around to run away, but people, our bodies turned limp, we all fell down on top of each other,” Anderson told OAN’s Christina Bobb in December 2021. “And the police kept pushing more and more people on top of us. And they used mace, they used batons to beat us, their fists.”

Anderson found himself at the bottom of the pile. Next to him was Rosanne. “After we both fell down all these people fell on top of us, about 30 people. So we’re both being crushed to death. She grabbed, she reaches out and grabs my hand. She was holding my hand for a little while and then she lets go,” said Anderson. “And at that moment I’m thinking I’m about to die too. So I started yelling as loud as I can.”

Despite his shouts for help, the police continued to push more bodies on top of the pile. This Anderson still cannot understand or forgive. “I would be dead,” he said, “if it weren’t for Trump supporters who are sitting in prison right now.”

Winchell was desperate to save Rosanne. “Gimme your hand,” he implored. Getting no response, he wailed, “She’s dead. She’s dead. Please, I need somebody. She’s dead. Please, I need somebody.”

What happened next has not gotten nearly the attention it deserves. In their various reports on Rosanne’s death, the major media scrupulously avoided discussing what policewoman Lila Morris did to Rosanne’s body. Once the others were pulled off, Rosanne lay momentarily lifeless and exposed at the tunnel entrance. Keen on “equity,” the MPD apparently thought it only fair to allow a small, slim female the opportunity to man the contested front of a police line.

Morris, who had just reached the front, picked up what appears to be a tree branch, raised it up with both hands, and swung wildly. The video of this beating can be seen here. She struck Rosanne over the head at least three times before the branch snapped and flew out of her hands. “She was already blue, and the Capitol Police hit her once in the face,” Winchell said of Rosanne. “And some blood started coming out of her nose. I was like, ‘I think she’s dead. I think she’s dead.’ And I’m screaming this.”

“I was horrified,” said the Epoch Times use-of-force expert Stan Kephart upon seeing the video. “We don’t train officers to hit people in the head with a blunt object.” Added Kephart, “It was definitely a crime.”

Other protestors intervened to try to save Rosanne. As Winchell watched, protestors Jake Lang and Ronald McAbee removed Rosanne from the tunnel entrance and began applying CPR. Failing to revive her after ten minutes, they and other protestors carried Rosanne back to the entrance in the hope that the police had the resources to revive her. They did not and could not.

For the next year, the Boyland family tried in vain to learn the truth about Rosanne’s death. The Boylands and a family friend, MSNBC anchor Ayman Moyhedin, were stonewalled at every turn. The podcast series MSNBC did on Boyland’s death deserves to be heard if only to show how reluctant Moyhedin was to learn the truth.

Lila Morris remained an unquestioned hero until September 2021 when that damning video surfaced of her striking Rosanne. Disturbed by what he saw, J6 video expert Gary McBride filed a police brutality complaint with the DC Metropolitan Police Department. McBride believes Rosanne was still alive when Morris struck her. “When she takes that second hit to the head, watch her left arm, her left arm straightens up and lifts off the ground,” he told the Epoch Times.

Morris had no cause to worry. Two months after McBride filed his complaint, he was informed via email, “The use of force within this investigation was determined to be objectively reasonable.” Morris would remain on the force and would face no criminal charges. Such was the state of justice in Merrick Garland’s DC.