Woman killed in siege was a veteran
SAN DIEGO >> The woman shot dead by police during Wednesday’s siege of the U.S. Capitol was identified by police as Ashli Babbitt, a U. S. Air Force veteran whose social media activity indicates she embraced far-fetched right-wing conspiracy theories.
Babbitt, 35, was an ardent supporter of President Donald Trump, and her posts on Twitter endorsed Trump’s false assertions that he was defeated because Democrats elaborately rigged the Nov. 3 election.
The Twitter account @ Ashli_ Babbitt, which includes photographs of her, shared many posts in recent weeks flagging her excitement over attending the Trump rally in Washington on Jan. 6.
The day before, she wrote: “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!”
Babbitt lashed out at government- enforced COVID-19 restrictions on her Twitter page. At the pool cleaning service that public records indicate she ran with her husband in Spring Valley, a sign was pasted to the door on Thursday, reading: ‘MASK FREE AUTONOMOUS ZONE BETTER KNOWN AS AMERICA ... tyranny, lawlessness, disrespect and hate for your fellow man will not be tolerated.’
There was also a picture of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, with a slash through it.
Babbitt had traveled to Washington with friends to join Wednesday’s rally, her husband, Aaron, told Fox 5 News in San Diego. He said he sent her a text message checking her status about 30 minutes before the shooting but never heard back.
Videos of the shooting recorded by people at the scene show a woman draped in a Trump flag clambering up a doorway with smashed glass windows in a chaotic confrontation between the Trump-supporting intruders and police in an ornate hallway in the Capitol.
A Capitol Police officer on the other side of the doorway then fires his handgun, and the woman — whose appearance matches that of Babbitt’s photos — falls backward onto the ground, bleeding profusely and visibly in shock.