Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt, the only protester killed during the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol breach when she was shot by a Capitol police officer, will receive full military funeral honors from the Air Force.
“On behalf of the Secretary of the Air Force, I write to extend the offer for Military Funeral Honors for SrA Ashli Babbitt,” Undersecretary of the Air Force Matthew Lohmeier wrote to Babbitt’s family. “After reviewing the circumstances of Ashli’s death, and considering the information that has come forward since then, I am persuaded that the previous determination was incorrect.”
Babbitt “served on active duty as a security forces senior airman from 2004 to 2008, then served in both the Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard, deploying to Afghanistan in 2005, Iraq in 2006, and the United Arab Emirates in 2012 and 2014,” The Washington Post reported, adding, “Any service member who was on active duty at the time of their death is eligible, as is any former service member who was honorably discharged.”
Babbitt was 35 when she entered the Capitol building and gained access to a hallway outside “Speaker’s Lobby,” which leads to the Chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives. The Department of Justice noted, adding, “At the time, the USCP (United States Capitol Police) was evacuating Members from the Chamber, which the mob was trying to enter from multiple doorways.” Babbitt was unarmed at the time.
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The USCP officers used furniture to barricade a set of glass doors separating the hallway and Speaker’s Lobby; three officers positioned themselves between the doors. Protesters broke the glass doors, allowing Babbitt to attempt to climb through one of the doors. An officer inside the Speaker’s Lobby fired one round from his service pistol, which hit Babbitt in the left shoulder. She was taken to Washington Hospital Center, where she later died.
The DOJ decided there was insufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution of the police officer, stating, “Prosecutors would have to prove not only that the officer used force that was constitutionally unreasonable, but that the officer did so ‘willfully, which the Supreme Court has interpreted to mean that the officer acted with a bad purpose to disregard the law. … the investigation revealed no evidence to establish that, at the time the officer fired a single shot at Ms. Babbitt, the officer did not reasonably believe that it was necessary to do so in self-defense or in defense of the Members of Congress and others evacuating the House Chamber.”
In January 2024, Babbitt’s family members sued the federal government, seeking $30 million, claiming she had been wrongfully killed.
“The lawsuit filed by Babbitt’s family alleged that Babbitt did not go to Washington’ for any unlawful or nefarious purpose,’ had her hands in the air when she was shot and ‘posed no threat to the safety of anyone,’” the Post noted.
In May 2025, the Department of Justice reached a settlement with Ashli Babbitt’s family, agreeing later that month to pay them just under $5 million.