Rioter shot, killed in D.C. identified, was veteran
Military veteran Ashli Babbitt was identified as the woman who was shot and died Wednesday during a riot inside the U.S. Capitol.
“As protesters were forcing their way toward the House Chamber where Members of Congress were sheltering in place, a sworn (U.S. Capitol Police) employee discharged their service weapon, striking an adult female,” Capitol Police said in a statement Thursday. “Medical assistance was rendered immediately, and the female was transported to the hospital where she later succumbed to her injuries.”
The employee was placed on administrative leave with police powers suspended pending the outcome of a joint Metropolitan Police Department and Capitol Police investigation, police said.
Numerous media outlets named Babbitt, a 35-yearold San Diego woman, late Wednesday, and KSUI-TV quoted her husband saying she had been a staunch Trump supporter and “a great patriot.”
Videos of the shooting show Babbitt wore a Trump flag as a cape as she tried to crawl through a broken window, flanked by other protesters. A single shot rang out, and she fell to the floor bleeding from an apparent neck wound.
Police officers screamed for the crowd to make room and a voice heard on video declared, “Ladies and gentlemen, a lady was just shot. She might be dying right now.”
The biographical section of a Twitter account with the user name Ashli Babbitt, using the display name
“CommonAshSense,” identifies her as a veteran, a Libertarian and a Second Amendment supporter.
Online, she was vocal about her backing of Trump and appeared in photographs wearing a red cap with the president’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. In September, Babbitt tweeted a photo from a pro-Trump boat parade in San Diego.
On Jan. 1, she advised followers she would be in Washington, D.C., for the demonstration with a post that said, “God bless America and WWG1WGA.” The initials, a slogan for the QAnon conspiracy network, stand for “Where we go one, we go all.”
On Tuesday, Babbitt posted a declaration: “Nothing will stop us .... they can try and try and try but the storm is here and it is descending upon DC in less than 24 hours .... dark to light!”
That was in response to a post from another Twitter user who pictured a colonial flag overlaid with “1776 Again” above the words “Trump is still our president.”
Babbitt’s account also shows many retweets. The last one, posted Wednesday, called for Vice President Mike Pence to resign and face charges of treason; for former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to be arrested and charged as an accessory to murder and treason; and for Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to resign.
Members of Babbitt’s family could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Babbitt served in the Air Force under the married name of Ashli Elizabeth McEntee. She served as an enlisted airman in the Air Force, serving on active duty and in the Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard, according to records released Thursday.