Killing of Ashli Babbitt
2021 shooting in the U.S. Capitol Building
On January 6, 2021, Ashli Babbitt, a 35-year-old American United States Air Force veteran and pool supply owner, was fatally shot by an officer during the attack on the United States Capitol. She was part of a mob of supporters of then-outgoing U.S. president Donald Trump who stormed the United States Capitol seeking to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. She was a supporter of QAnon, a far-right conspiracy theory.
Despite multiple warnings not to proceed, Babbitt attempted to climb through a shattered window beside a barricaded door into the House Speaker's Lobby, at which point she was shot in the shoulder by United States Capitol Police (USCP) Lieutenant Michael Byrd. After a USCP emergency response team administered aid, Babbitt was transported to Washington Hospital Center, where she died from her injuries. Although some media reports described Babbitt as unarmed at the time of the shooting, a crime scene examination report revealed that a pocketknife was found in Babbitt's pants pocket. The USCP deemed that the shooting was "lawful and within Department policy" and "potentially saved Members [of Congress] and staff from serious injury and possible death".
Babbitt has been considered a martyr by Donald Trump and his supporters. In May 2025, a wrongful death lawsuit was settled with Babbitt's family for nearly $5 million. The settlement came after Trump said he would look into whether the government should settle with the family.
“Killing of Ashli Babbitt” enters the record as 2021 shooting in the U.S. Capitol Building. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Killing, Ashli and Babbitt can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Killing of Ashli Babbitt” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.