Overview

Ashli Elizabeth Babbitt was a 35-year-old Air Force veteran and adherent of the QAnon conspiracy movement who was shot and killed by Capitol Police Lieutenant Michael Byrd while attempting to climb through a broken window into the Speaker's Lobby during the January 6; 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol. She was the only person directly killed by gunfire during the Capitol breach. Babbitt served 14 years in the Air Force and Air National Guard; including deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan; and held a high-level security clearance. After leaving the military; she ran a pool supply business in San Diego that struggled financially. She became deeply radicalized through QAnon content on social media; posting extensively about the conspiracy theory's claims that a secret cabal of pedophilic elites controlled the government and that Trump was waging a covert war against them. On January 6; she traveled to Washington D.C. to attend Trump's rally and then marched to the Capitol. She was at the front of the mob that breached the building and was shot while attempting to enter a barricaded hallway where members of Congress were being evacuated. Trump later called her "an incredible person" and her death became a rallying cry for the far right; who portrayed her as a martyr. The DOJ cleared Lt. Byrd of wrongdoing; finding the shooting was justified in defense of members of Congress.

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Controversies & Concerns

Related Investigations (1)

Known Associates & Connections

Sources & Documentation

1 documented sources from official records, investigations, and reports