A woman who was shot on Capitol Hill during a violent outbreak, identified as an Air Force veteran, has died.
Ashli Babbitt was shot by law enforcement and taken to a nearby hospital. She was later pronounced dead.
It’s unclear where in the Capitol building she was shot or why. The aftermath of the shooting was caught on video and circulated on social media.
Babbitt has been identified as a 35-year-old San Diego resident who served four tours with the Air Force. Her ex-husband said she was a strong supporter of President Trump and “had a personality that you either loved or hated,” according to NPR.
#KUSINews has confirmed the identity of the woman shot and killed inside US Capitol.
More info: https://t.co/xW9Ssd9bKD pic.twitter.com/DS6zjFOdDF
— KUSI News (@KUSINews) January 7, 2021
The Capitol Hill complex went on lockdown Wednesday after planned “Stop the Steal” protests devolved into a violent breach of the congressional building — smashing windows, breaking into offices, looting rooms, and forcing an evacuation of Vice President Mike Pence and lawmakers as staff and reporters were told to shelter in place.
At least four protests were scheduled in Washington, D.C., for Wednesday, the day Congress was expected to count the votes of the Electoral College and certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. President Trump and many of his political supporters, including Roger Stone and George Papadopoulos, attended the protests, which turned into a storming of the Capitol.
Trump repeatedly stoked the chaos throughout the day, repeating claims of widespread voter fraud and telling his supporters “we will never give up” and “we will never concede.” Those claims have been rejected by state and federal officials, and Trump’s and his allies’ legal challenges in court have largely failed.
After the Capitol was breached, Trump made several appeals to law and order and asked his supporters for peace but still claimed he won the election.
National Guard troops, the U.S. Marshals, and state troopers from Maryland and Virginia have been activated and deployed to the capital.
“I think it remains sort of hard to overstate the importance of the fact that people appear to have gotten inside the U.S. Capitol today not just themselves but apparently with weapons,” MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow said in response to the reports. “Nobody was screened. Nobody went through the sort of security procedures that you would usually need to go through in order to get in there, and there does seem to be indication that some of the people who got inside the Capitol were armed, and now, we know of at least one death. The entire D.C. National Guard has been activated. That’s about 1,100 troops. We’ve seen activation of National Guard now from other states.”
