Husband of US Capitol rioter Ashli Babbitt sues police for records revealing identity of officer who killed her

The husband of Ashli Babbitt, the election-fraud protester who was killed during the US Capitol riot, has filed a lawsuit to force police to turn over investigation records, including the name of the officer who shot her.

The lawsuit, which was filed last week in the Washington, DC Superior Court, demands video footage of the January 6 shooting, as well as witness statements and documents gathered when the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) investigated the incident. Babbitt’s husband, Aaron Babbitt, previously filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain the records, but the MPD allegedly ignored a May 12 deadline to either comply or state that it’s refusing to release the materials.

The DOJ announced in April that its investigation didn't find sufficient evidence to prosecute the officer who shot Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force veteran. Police chose not to identify the shooter, and there was no media uproar demanding greater transparency, like that called for in officer-involved shootings around the nation.

Conservatives, such as Fox News host Tucker Carlson and US Representative Paul Gosar (R-Arizona) have repeatedly called for the officer to be identified. “Who executed Ashli Babbitt?” Gosar asked last month at a US House hearing.

Babbitt was shot after she climbed up and tried to enter the Speaker's Lobby, located near the House floor, through a broken window. A plainclothes lieutenant shot her from inside the Speaker's Lobby, hitting her in the left shoulder and causing her to fall back into the hallway, where rioters were trying to get through a barricaded doorway.

“Stepping into the Speaker's Lobby might be unlawful, but it doesn't warrant the death penalty,” said Terry Roberts, a lawyer for the Babbitt family. “We don't shoot protesters in this country unless they're an immediate threat to somebody.”

The records lawsuit is separate from a wrongful-death case that Babbitt's family plans to file against the Capitol police, seeking at least $10 million in damages. 

Mainstream media outlets and Democrat politicians have touted the riot as having killed five people. Four of the people who died were election-fraud protesters, and only Babbitt was killed. The others died from medical conditions, such as heart attack. CNN and other outlets initially reported that Capitol policeman Brian Sicknick was bludgeoned to death with a fire extinguisher. A long-delayed medical examiner's report found that he died of natural causes, suffering two strokes – caused by blood clots – hours after the riot.

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