On January 6, 2021, Ashli Babbitt, a 35-year-old American United States Air Force veteran and pool supply owner, was fatally shot by an officer during the attack on the United States Capitol. She was part of a mob of supporters of then-outgoing U.S. president Donald Trump who stormed the United States Capitol seeking to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. She was a supporter of QAnon, a far-right conspiracy theory.
Despite multiple warnings not to proceed, Babbitt attempted to climb through a shattered window beside a barricaded door into the House Speaker's Lobby, at which point she was shot in the shoulder by United States Capitol Police (USCP) Lieutenant Michael Byrd.Multiple sources: After a USCP emergency response team administered aid, Babbitt was transported to Washington Hospital Center, where she died from her injuries. Although some media reports described Babbitt as unarmed at the time of the shooting, a crime scene examination report revealed that a pocketknife was found in Babbitt's pants pocket. The USCP deemed that the shooting was "lawful and within Department policy" and "potentially saved Members [of Congress] and staff from serious injury and possible death".
Babbitt has been considered a martyr by Donald Trump and his supporters. In May 2025, a wrongful death lawsuit was settled with Babbitt's family for nearly $5 million. The settlement came after Trump said he would look into whether the government should settle with the family.
Background Attempts to overturn the 2020 election
After Joe Biden won the 2020 United States presidential election, then-incumbent Trump pursued an aggressive and unprecedentedMultiple sources:
effort to overturn the election,Multiple sources:
Multiple sources:
with support and assistance from his campaign, his proxies, his political allies, and many of his supporters. These efforts culminated in the United States Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, the day set for Congressional certification of the Electoral College vote count.
Life and views of Ashli Babbitt Babbitt, 35 years old at the time of her death, was raised in a mostly apolitical family near San Diego, California. In 2004, she enlisted in the United States Air Force, where she served 12 years; while on active duty, she met her first husband, Staff Sergeant Timothy McEntee. Babbitt had been deployed at least eight times by 2014, including in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, and Qatar; from 2010 onward, she served in the Air National Guard. Six of her years in service were spent in a "Capital Guardians" unit of the District of Columbia Air National Guard, whose mandate is to defend the Washington, D.C., region and respond to civil unrest. In 2014 Babbitt served as a "mentor" to less-experienced airmen about to go on their first deployment. She reached the rank of senior airman, a "relatively low rank" for a 12-year veteran according to The Washington Post.
From 2015 to 2017, near the end of her service, she supplemented her income by working as security at the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in Maryland. There, she met Aaron Babbitt, who later became her second husband. She filed for divorce from her first husband in 2018.
In 2016, she faced criminal charges of reckless endangerment in Maryland after she allegedly repeatedly smashed her SUV into a vehicle being driven by a former girlfriend of Aaron Babbitt. Citing ongoing harassment, the victim obtained multiple judicial orders forbidding Ashli any contact with her.
In 2018, Babbitt moved back to California with her second husband and they purchased a pool servicing business. She worked there with her brother and several other relatives.
Babbitt voted for Barack Obama at least once: asked by another Twitter user on November 15, 2018, if she had "supported Obama the same way [she] supported Trump?" she replied "[...] yes I did [...] I think Obama did great things... he jacked some shit up... but I think he did do a lot of good... at a time where we needed him. I voted for him!" She later registered as a Libertarian.
According to her brother, Babbitt became frustrated with such issues as the number of homeless people in San Diego and the difficulties of running a small business. As she struggled professionally, she came to embrace the radical right. On July 1, 2019, a judge issued a $71,000 judgment against her pool business for failing to repay a loan; around the same time, she supported Donald Trump and started following and promoting conspiracy theories. In November 2019, Babbitt tweeted about Pizzagate, a conspiracy theory that senior Democrats were operating a child sex-trafficking ring. By February 2020, Babbitt publicly supported QAnon, a broader far-right conspiracy theory that expanded Pizzagate's claims by adding the concept of a worldwide cabal of Satan-worshipping child abusers whom Trump is secretly fighting. One customer recalled having stopped doing business with Babbitt's company in 2020, after Babbitt unexpectedly delivered a political rant over the telephone.
Babbitt was highly active on social media through her Twitter handle @CommonAshSense. She seldom posted original content: most of her posts were retweets, frequently of messages from conservative and right-wing figures like Michael Flynn and Jack Posobiec, and conservative news sites like Right Side Broadcasting. According to Marc-André Argentino, a researcher studying QAnon and other extremist groups, Babbitt was not "a leader or major influencer within the QAnon movement", and was not involved in selling QAnon-themed merchandise. She had tweeted regularly about the conspiracy theory since February 2020. Babbitt posted about 50 times a day on Twitter; on Election Day, she posted 77 times.
After the election, Babbitt rejected the results and began supporting the Stop the Steal movement. On January 1, 2021, Babbitt announced plans to travel to DC for January 6.
A central belief among QAnon believers is that Trump was planning a massive sting operation on the "cabal", with mass arrests of thousands of cabal members to take place on a day known as "The Storm". On January 5, 2021, the day before the assault on the Capitol, Babbitt tweeted:
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!
On January 6, prior to her arrival at the Capitol, Babbitt retweeted messages by Trump lawyer and QAnon promoter L. Lin Wood demanding that Vice President Mike Pence, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Supreme Court chief justice John Roberts resign and that charges be brought against Pence and Rosenstein.
Capitol attack
It was reported that Pence had also been evacuated, but he remained in a secure location inside the Capitol.
Rioters occupied the empty Senate chamber while federal law enforcement officers defended the evacuated House floor. Capitol police were overrun by the rioters.
Events At 2:44p.m., law enforcement were trying to "defend two fronts" to the House Chamber, and "a lot of members [of Congress] and staff that were in danger at the time". Pipe bombs had been discovered outside the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee, and Capitol Police officers had been warned that many attackers were carrying concealed weapons.
Babbitt, wearing a Trump flag as a cape, was among several dozen rioters who approached the doors to the Speaker's Lobby, adjacent to the House chambers. Three uniformed officers were posted outside the Lobby where they were threatened by the crowd. One member of the mob yelled, "Fuck the Blue" (blue being a reference to the police). One officer guarding the doors told the others "They're ready to roll", and the three officers moved away from the barricaded doors leading to the Speaker's Lobby. No longer impeded by police, rioter Zachary Jordan Alam smashed a glass window beside the doors. On the other side of those doors, many lawmakers and staff were being evacuated by Capitol Police, but some were trapped in the House balcony.
On the other side of the doors and barricade, Lieutenant Michael Byrd was aiming his pistol at the broken window. Despite several calls of "he's got a gun", Babbitt, hoisted by two men, began to climb through the shattered window. She was then shot in her left anterior shoulder by Byrd and fell back among the other protesters. Babbitt had been warned not to proceed through the window: one witness recalled that "A number of police and Secret Service were saying 'Get back! Get down! Get out of the way!'; [Babbitt] didn't heed the call."
Many rioters immediately began to leave the scene, making room for a Capitol Police emergency response team to get in and administer aid, and Babbitt was transported to Washington Hospital Center where she later was declared dead. A report by the Metropolitan Police Department stated that she had been shot in the "upper portion of the left chest near the clavicle".
Some media reports described Babbitt as "unarmed" at the time of the shooting as she had no weapon in her hands, but according to a January 11, 2021, crime scene examination report by the D.C. Department of Forensic Sciences, the police "recovered a 'Para Force' folding knife in Ms. Babbitt's pants pocket" after she was shot.
U.S. representative Markwayne Mullin, a witness to Babbitt's attempted breach, said that Byrd "didn't have a choice" but to shoot, and that his action "saved people's lives".
The shooting was recorded on several cameras, and footage was widely circulated. John Earle Sullivan, among those who recorded footage of the shooting, was arrested for his role in the attack. Zachary Jordan Alam was also arrested for his role in the attack. MSNBC aired live video of Babbitt being rushed past the camera on a stretcher, outside the Capitol building.
Investigation and legal
Investigation, and clearing of Byrd Following the routine process for shootings by Capitol Police officers, the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia and the United States Department of Justice investigated Babbitt's death and made a determination that the shooting was "lawful and within Department policy". Upon clearing Byrd, USCP released a press statement saying his action "potentially saved Members and staff from serious injury and possible death". The USCP was not obliged to release Byrd's name as the USCP is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
Byrd made his name public in an August 2021 interview for NBC News. He said: "Once we barricaded the doors, we were essentially trapped where we were. There was no way to retreat. No other way to get out. If they get through that door, they're into the House chamber and upon the members of Congress." He stated that he had pulled the trigger as a "last resort" after the mob of protesters ignored his repeated orders to get back, and that he did not know at that moment whether Babbitt was armed or not, or that she was a woman. Byrd commented: "I know that day I saved countless lives. I know members of Congress, as well as my fellow officers and staff, were in jeopardy and in serious danger. And that's my job."
Byrd said his name had already been revealed in right-wing media and online forums and that he had received racist (Byrd is African-American) and violent threats, causing him to remain in hiding for several months.
Wrongful death lawsuit On April 16, 2021, after family attorney Terry Roberts opened a GiveSendGo Crowdfunding campaign, Ashli's husband, Aaron Babbitt, petitioned the San Diego County Superior Court for probate of Ashli's will, intending to file a wrongful death lawsuit. Later, in February 2022, Roberts and the Maryland law firm, Roberts and Wood, whom were the initial recipients of $462,000 crowdfunding donations, withdrew from the case.