The pro-Trump insurrectionist who died when she was shot in the neck inside the Capitol after she joined a mob that stormed the halls of Congress on Wednesday was identified as Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt.
Babbit traveled to Washington, DC, with thousands of people to attempt to overthrow Joe Biden’s election win. According to her social media accounts, she was an ardent Trump supporter and follower of QAnon, the mass delusion that preposterously claims Trump is fighting a deep state cabal of child abusers.
The shooting occurred shortly after dozens of Trump supporters breached the government building, where lawmakers had been meeting to certify the presidential election until they were evacuated amid an attempted coup. After hours of riots inside the halls of Congress, President-elect Joe Biden was officially certified as the winner of the presidential election early Thursday morning.
DC Police confirmed that the woman was shot by Capitol Police.
On Thursday, the chief of Capitol police issued a statement saying, “As protesters were forcing their way toward the House Chamber where Members of Congress were sheltering in place, a sworn USCP employee discharged their service weapon, striking an adult female. Medical assistance was rendered immediately, and the female was transported to the hospital where she later succumbed to her injuries.”
Per the agency’s policy, the USCP employee has been placed on administrative leave.
“Ashli was both loyal as well as extremely passionate about what she believed in,” brother-in-law Justin Jackson told NBC San Diego. “She loved this country and felt honored to have served in our Armed Forces. Please keep her family in your thoughts and respect their privacy during this time.”
Babbitt’s ex-husband, Timothy McEntee, told the Washington Post that Babbitt served in Afghanistan and Iraq in the Air Force and was later deployed to Kuwait and Qatar with the National Guard.
According to multiple outlets, the 35-year-old woman remarried after splitting with McEntee and started a pool supply company with her new husband, Aaron Babbitt.
Posts on her social media show she donned QAnon T-shirts at Trump events in San Diego, used hashtags common to the movement like #WWG1WGA, and repeatedly retweeted QAnon accounts.
Most recently, she repeatedly retweeted Lin Wood, a conspiracy theorist and an attorney who pushed false theories about mass fraud during the presidential election.
In angry videos, she railed against California Democratic politicians.
“I’m like really heated all of a sudden,” she says in a video posted while she is visibly driving. “I’m so sick about of these politicians in this goddamned state. I can’t take it anymore. They’re all worried about Trump is doing. How about we worry about what the hell you’ve done?!”
“I am so tired of this,” she says. “I am woke, man.”
Source Article from https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/maryanngeorgantopoulos/ashli-babbitt-shot-died-capitol
Comments