The family of Ashli Babbitt, the Air Force veteran and Trump supporter who was shot dead during the Jan. 6 siege, is open to filing a lawsuit against the officer who pulled the trigger during the unrest.
Terrell Roberts, the lawyer for the family, told the Epoch Times that any litigation, pending an investigation into the shooting, would be “against the officer, the Capitol Police.” According to the report, Roberts said such a lawsuit would allege constitutional violations and excessive use of force.
The identity of the U.S. Capitol Police officer has not been publicly revealed.
Babbitt, who served in the Air Force for over a dozen years, was killed as she tried to breach a door leading to the House chamber as rioters worked their way through the U.S. Capitol, disrupting lawmakers as they counted electoral votes to affirm President Biden’s 2020 victory.
Footage of the incident showed Babbitt, alongside a group of rioters, breaking glass in an attempt to force entry into an area packed with House lawmakers. Police in suits and ties stood guard with their guns drawn on the other side of the door until a shot was heard and the 35-year-old fell to the ground.
“The officer who shot Ashli never attempted to arrest her,” Roberts said. “Nor did he call on his fellow officers to arrest her. Instead, he fired a shot into her chest.”
Investigators looking into the matter advised that the officer, who was placed on leave shortly after the shooting per department policy, not face charges, according to reports in early February. However, D.C. Metropolitan Police spokeswoman Alaina Gertz said, “This case remains under active investigation.”
Roberts insisted that the officer failed to issue a verbal warning to Babbitt before she was shot.
ATTORNEY FOR CAPITOL OFFICER WHO SHOT ASHLI BABBITT DISPUTES CLAIM HE DIDN’T ISSUE VERBAL WARNING
“Witnesses confirm that the officer did not give Ashli a single verbal warning prior to firing,” Roberts said. “In fact, Ashli was not even aware that the officer was present, as he was located in the doorway of a room off to the side of her field of vision.”
An attorney for the Capitol Police officer disputed Roberts’s claim.
“It’s a false narrative that he issued no verbal commands or warnings,” the officer’s lawyer, Mark Schamel, said in late February. “He was screaming, ‘Stay back! Stay back! Don’t come in here!'” Schamel said his client was donning a face mask at the time, obscuring the view of his lips moving.
He likened his actions to “unbelievable heroism.”
“He was acting within his training,” Schamel said. “Lethal force is appropriate if the situation puts you or others in fear of imminent bodily harm. There should be a training video on how he handled that situation,” adding that the officer “stopped a potential massacre” by preventing the advance of the rioters.
Babbitt’s family members and friends have spoken out about her death and issued harsh words to the officer responsible.
“That was an execution,” said Jack Feeley, a fellow Air Force veteran and friend of Babbitt, who said it “breaks my heart to know millions of people watched my friend be executed on live television.”
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Aaron Babbitt, who was Ashli’s husband, said, “She didn’t have any weapons on her. I don’t know why she had to die in the People’s House. She was voicing her opinion and got killed for it.”
The public information division of the Capitol Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner.
More than 300 people have been charged in connection to the siege of Congress.
U.S. Capitol Police said officer Brian Sicknick was fatally injured during the attack. He received the rare tribute of lying in honor in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda before his cremated remains were sent to Arlington National Cemetery to be laid to rest. Three others died from “medical emergencies,” according to officials. Two other Capitol Police officers who responded to the riot later died by suicide, local police said.
