The family of Ashli Babbitt, the San Diego woman who was shot and killed during the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol breach, filed a $30 million wrongful death lawsuit Friday in San Diego federal court against the U.S. government.
The lawsuit alleges Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force veteran, was “ambushed” by the U.S. Capitol Police officer who shot her without “any warnings or commands.”
Babbitt was climbing through the broken window of a barricaded door to the Speaker’s Lobby when she was shot. The Department of Justice did not pursue criminal charges against Lt. Michael Byrd, the officer who shot her, while U.S. Capitol police said he would not face internal discipline.
Friday’s lawsuit, filed just before the three-year anniversary of the attack, states Babbitt attended then-President Donald Trump’s rally on Jan. 6, then “like a great many other patriotic Americans attending the rally, walked to the Capitol peacefully.” The complaint states “Ashli did not go to Washington as part of a group or for any unlawful or nefarious purpose” and “she was there to exercise what she believed were her God-given, American liberties and freedoms.”
The lawsuit states that when Babbitt was shot, she was unarmed and “posed no threat to the safety of anyone.”
According to the complaint, Byrd was not in uniform and did not identify himself as a police officer before he opened fire. The lawsuit also alleges no members of Congress were in the Speaker’s Lobby at the time and that the area was guarded by multiple armed police officers.
In an August 2021 television interview, Byrd told NBC News that he pulled the trigger as a “last resort.”
During the interview, Byrd said, “I tried to wait as long as I could. I hoped and prayed no one tried to enter through those doors. But 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.”
Babbitt was among five people killed during the Jan. 6 insurrection. More than 1,000 people have been prosecuted for various roles in the breach, including Trump.