The family of Ashli Babbitt has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the federal government, seeking $30 million over her shooting death during the 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
The lawsuit filed Friday in California federal court claims the 35-year-old Air Force veteran “posed no threat to the safety of anyone” when she was fatally shot while attempting to break into the speaker’s lobby during the assault involving supporters of then-President Donald Trump.
Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd, who shot Babbitt as police evacuated members of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, was later determined in an internal investigation to have acted lawfully and to have “potentially saved members and staff from serious injury and possible death.”
The lawsuit, which was filed by conservative group Judicial Watch on behalf of Babbitt’s widower, Aaron Babbitt, and her estate, contends that she was “ambushed” by the officer, however.
“Ashli was unarmed. Her hands were up in the air, empty, and in plain view of Lt. Byrd and other officers in the lobby,” states the suit, which alleges wrongful death, assault and battery, and various negligence issues.
Byrd “was not in uniform, did not identify himself as a police officer or otherwise make his presence known to Ashli. Lt. Byrd did not give Ashli any warnings or commands before shooting her dead,” it goes on.
Babbitt had traveled alone to Washington, D.C. from her home in San Diego because she “loved her country and wanted to show her support for President Trump,” the suit states. “She was there to exercise what she believed were her God-given, American liberties and freedoms.”
Bryd said he was forced to take lethal action and “tried to wait as long as I could” as a mob of protesters broke a door’s window and tried to make their way through.
“Their failure to comply required me to take the appropriate action to save the lives of members of Congress and myself and my fellow officers,” he later told NBC News.
Babbitt’s mother, Micki Witthoeft, has continuously held protests over her daughter’s death in D.C. and has called for the hanging deaths of Byrd and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). She has been arrested twice in relation to her protesting, though prosecutors have declined to press charges.
Witthoeft was arrested last May for simple assault and destruction of property following a scuffle involving a counterprotester in D.C. She was arrested four months earlier, on the second anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack, for allegedly failing to obey police orders and blocking and obstructing roadways, WUSA reported.