A US Air Force veteran from San Diego has been identified as the woman who was shot and killed inside the US Capitol when Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the building and clashed with police.
Ashli Babbit was shot in the chest this afternoon after chaotic scenes broke out when dozens of Trump supporters breached security perimeters at the Capitol.
She died several hours later.
Washington, D.C., Police Chief Robert Contee said three others also died in “medical emergencies.”
Babbit’s husband said she was a 14-year veteran who served four tours with Air Force as a ‘high level security official’.
Her husband said Babbit was a fervent supporter of Trump and ‘a great patriot to all who knew her.’
It remains unclear who shot Babbit as the Metropolitan Police Department in DC conducts an investigation into her death.
Two witnesses to the shooting suggested that Babbit may have been shot by a police officer when she tired to climb through a broken window into an area that officers were blocking off.
One of the witnesses, John Sullivan, recorded a video of the aftermath, showing police with guns drawn and Babbit lying in a pool of blood in a stairway inside the Capitol.
Describing the moments leading up to the shooting, Sullivan said protesters were trying to get into the main entrance of the chamber when they came upon two guards who refused to move.
The group then went down another hallway and used flag poles and other items to break windows to get into the chamber before a group of police emerged.
‘All we see is these guns coming out of the doorway, just guns, and all you can see is their hands. You could not see faces,’ he said.
‘Right when I saw that I was yelling to people: “Guys, there is guns, you don’t want to go through there. They’re going to shoot.”‘
Babbit ignored Sullivan’s plea and went ahead anyway, he said.
‘The second that she climbed through the window, she got shot right in the neck area and fell backwards,’ he said.
Multiple police officers were reportedly injured during the violence that took over the Capitol grounds on Wednesday afternoon and continued well into the night.
Babbit traveled to DC from her home in California without her husband.
Wednesday’s chaotic scenes unfolded at about 3pm, soon after Trump addressed thousands of his supporters and encouraged them to march to the Capitol, where lawmakers were convened to certify Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory in the presidential election.
Dozens of protesters – many of them armed and most not wearing masks – breached barricades around the building and pushed past countless police officers to enter the Rotunda.
A small group managed to get into the chamber, where cowering lawmakers were told to put on gas masks as tear gas filled the air.
One protester occupied the Senate dais and yelled: ‘Trump won that election’.
Some protesters even occupied Pelosi’s office, sitting mockingly at a desk.
Trump called the mob ‘patriots’ while President-elect Biden called for the ‘mob to pull back’ and said the uprising bordered on sedition.
Just before 8pm lawmakers who had been whisked to safety during the siege began arriving back at the Capitol to resume the certification proceedings.
The lawmakers were seen flanked by armed guards as they made their way into the Capitol.