Person of record

Ashli Babbitt

Memorial — United States Air Force veteran, killed January 6, 2021

**IN MEMORIAM — ASHLI ELIZABETH BABBITT — 1985 to January 6, 2021** Ashli Babbitt served this country for fourteen years before this country took her life in a hallway of its own Capitol. She was thirty-five years old. She was a United States Air Force veteran. She was a small business owner. She was a wife, a daughter, and a sister. She drove across the country from San Diego by herself to stand up for something she believed in, and she never drove home. This page exists because Ashli Babbitt cannot speak for herself anymore. So the record will speak for her. --- ## THE AIRMAN Start where she started. Not with January 6. With the oath. Ashli Babbitt — who served under her first married name, Ashli McEntee — enlisted in the United States Air Force in 2004 and served twelve years across three components. Active duty Air Force from April 2004 to April 2008. Air Force Reserve from October 2008 to July 2010. Air National Guard from July 2010 to July 2016. **[FACT]** Her career field was Security Forces. Military police. She deployed as a Security Forces Controller. She separated as a Senior Airman. **[FACT]** Her last active-duty station was Dyess Air Force Base, Texas. Her final unit was the 113th Security Forces Squadron, 113th Wing, District of Columbia Air National Guard, out of Joint Base Andrews. **[FACT]** Read that unit designation again, because it matters. The 113th Wing are the Capital Guardians. Their mission includes responding to civil unrest in the Washington, D.C. region. Ashli Babbitt spent six years of her service in the unit charged with protecting the very city where she died. **[FACT]** She deployed eight times. That number does not come from her family, and it does not come from her supporters. It comes from the Air Force. On February 15, 2014, the 113th Wing published a public-domain news release about airmen departing on a five-month deployment to Southwest Asia. It names her: > *Since joining the Air Force eight years ago on active duty, McEntee has deployed seven times. This deployment with the 113th SFS will be her eighth total deployment and her second since joining the DCANG.* **[FACT — U.S. Air Force, DVIDS Story ID 120981, public domain]** And in that same official release, the Air Force quoted her on why she was going. Not on politics. On taking care of the younger airmen going downrange for the first time: > *The newer airmen have been coming to us and asking about the living conditions, the weather, the gear, the schedule, how we work as teams, the hours we work... As we have a large amount of first timers deploying with us, I think we can offer comfort and knowledge.* **[FACT — U.S. Air Force, same release]** That is who Ashli Babbitt was in her own words, published by the United States government, seven years before she died. A senior airman on her eighth deployment, thinking about the kids who had never been. Eight deployments. Afghanistan. Iraq. The Gulf. Fourteen years in uniform between active duty, Reserve, and Guard. Nobody gets to call that woman un-American. ## THE BUSINESS OWNER After the uniform came off, she went to work. From 2015 to 2017 Ashli Babbitt worked security at the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in Maryland. That is where she met her husband, Aaron Babbitt. **[FACT]** In 2018 the two of them moved back to California and bought a pool servicing business — Fowler''s Pool Service and Supply, Inc., in Spring Valley, San Diego County. Ashli was the CEO. Aaron was the CFO. Her brother worked there. So did other relatives. **[FACT]** A veteran-owned family business in East San Diego County. Trucks, chemicals, service calls, payroll, and all the weight that comes with signing the front of the checks instead of the back. Anybody who has ever run a small business with their family in it knows exactly what she was carrying. She was running that company on January 5, 2021, the day before she died. ## JANUARY 6, 2021 She traveled to Washington alone. **[DOCUMENTED — per the family and their counsel]** At 2:44 p.m. on January 6, 2021, Ashli Babbitt was shot at the east entrance to the Speaker''s Lobby, in the hallway outside the doors leading toward the House Chamber. She was climbing through the broken sidelight of a barricaded glass door when a single round was fired. **[FACT — U.S. Department of Justice]** The man who fired it was U.S. Capitol Police Lieutenant Michael Byrd, a Capitol Police commander who was serving as the incident commander for the House that day. He fired one round. **[FACT]** The Capitol Police did not release his name. He released it himself, in an NBC News interview in August 2021. **[FACT]** She was transported to Washington Hospital Center. She died there. **[FACT — DOJ]** ## THE RECORD, CORRECTED This archive does not exist to repeat what people say. It exists to publish what the record shows. So here are two corrections — and one of them cuts against the side that loves her. **She was not shot in the neck.** You have heard that a thousand times. It is wrong. The District of Columbia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled that Ashli Babbitt died of a **gunshot wound to the left shoulder**. The Justice Department''s own press release says the round struck her "in the left shoulder." The MPD report describes the upper portion of the left chest near the clavicle. **[FACT]** **She had nothing in her hands.** Her hands were empty. Multiple accounts have her hands up as she came through the opening. That is the truth, and it is the part that matters most. But precision is the whole point of this archive, so here is the rest of it: a District of Columbia Department of Forensic Sciences crime-scene report dated January 11, 2021 records that police recovered a folding knife from a pocket of her pants after the shooting. **[FACT]** In her pocket. Folded. Not in her hand, not drawn, not opened, not brandished, not visible, and by every account not known to the officer who fired. We publish that because the standard on this site is the same for everybody. You do not get to demand the tape and then edit it. A knife folded in a pocket is not a threat, and saying so honestly is stronger than pretending the line does not exist — because when a critic raises it, and they will, this page already answered it. And here is the manner of death, from the government''s own medical examiner: **Homicide.** **[FACT — DC OCME]** The OCME defines homicide as death resulting from the intentional harm of one person by another. That is the official ruling of the District of Columbia. Not "unclear." Not "undetermined." Homicide. ## WHAT THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ACTUALLY SAID On April 14, 2021, the U.S. Attorney''s Office for the District of Columbia and the DOJ Civil Rights Division announced they would not bring charges. Press release 21-052. **[FACT]** Now read what they actually based that on, because almost nobody does. The statute was 18 U.S.C. § 242. To convict, prosecutors would have had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer acted **willfully** — in DOJ''s words, "with a bad purpose to disregard the law." And the Department wrote this, in its own release: > *evidence that an officer acted out of fear, mistake, panic, misperception, negligence, or even poor judgment cannot establish the high level of intent required.* **[FACT — DOJ press release]** Understand what that means. **The Justice Department did not find that shooting Ashli Babbitt was reasonable. It found that it could not prove the officer had a bad purpose.** Fear, mistake, panic, misperception, negligence, poor judgment — DOJ listed those as things that would NOT be enough to charge. That is a declination on intent. It is not an exoneration on conduct. Those are two completely different findings, and for four years they have been deliberately blurred into one. ## FOUR MILLION NINE HUNDRED SEVENTY-FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS The family sued the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act. On June 6, 2025, the settlement was executed. **[FACT]** The amount: **$4,975,000.00.** **[FACT — signed Stipulation for Compromise Settlement and Release]** The family was represented by Judicial Watch. **[FACT]** In fairness, and because this page tells the whole truth: the settlement document states expressly that it is not an admission of liability or fault by the United States, and that the United States specifically denies liability. It was entered to compromise disputed claims and avoid the expense and risk of further litigation. **[FACT — settlement document]** So no, the government did not confess. Governments almost never do. But the government of the United States wrote a check for nearly five million dollars to the family of a woman it said had been lawfully shot. Draw your own conclusions. That is what the receipts say. ## THE HONORS THEY OWED HER Here is the fact that should have been the first fact, and instead took four and a half years. On August 15, 2025, Under Secretary of the Air Force Matthew L. Lohmeier wrote: > *On behalf of the Secretary of the Air Force, I write to extend the offer for Military Funeral Honors for (Senior Airman) Ashli Babbitt.* **[FACT]** That letter reversed an earlier denial. **[FACT]** Fourteen years. Eight deployments. Security Forces. Capital Guardians. And her family had to fight for a flag and a detail. She earned those honors in 2004 when she raised her right hand. Not in 2025. The Air Force did not grant Ashli Babbitt anything in August 2025. It finally stopped withholding what was already hers. ## HER MOTHER You cannot tell Ashli Babbitt''s story without telling Micki Witthoeft''s. Ashli''s mother left San Diego and moved to Washington, D.C. — to the city where her daughter was killed — and became a full-time advocate. **[FACT]** On August 1, 2022, she began standing outside the D.C. jail. Nightly. Seven to nine. Alongside Nicole Reffitt. They called it Freedom Corner. **[FACT]** Think about what that actually asks of a person. Every night, on a sidewalk, outside the building holding other people''s children, in the town that killed yours. On May 30, 2023 she was arrested near the D.C. jail on a simple assault charge. The charges were not pursued. **[FACT]** She has said this about her daughter: > *Half the country loves her and half the country hates her. It is weird to have your child belong to the world.* **[HER ACCOUNT]** The movement carrying Ashli''s name is 4Ashli. **[FACT]** There is no formal foundation by that name, and this page will not invent one. One more thing, and it belongs here because it is true and it is honorable: **Aaron Babbitt has said publicly that he does not want violence done in his wife''s name.** **[FACT]** Her husband said it. This archive says it too. Do not threaten anyone. Do not harass anyone. Do not contact anyone in her name or in mine. ## WHAT THIS PROVES - Ashli Babbitt served fourteen years and deployed eight times. **The Air Force said so in writing in 2014.** - She died of a gunshot wound to the left shoulder, fired by a named Capitol Police commander, and the District of Columbia ruled it **homicide.** - The Justice Department declined to charge on **willfulness** — not on reasonableness. - The United States paid her family **$4,975,000.** - The Air Force offered **full Military Funeral Honors** in August 2025, reversing a denial. - Her hands were empty. ## WHAT THIS DOES NOT PROVE It does not prove a criminal conviction, because there was never a prosecution. It does not prove the officer acted with a bad purpose, because DOJ said it could not establish that. The settlement is not an admission. This page will not claim otherwise. It does not need to. ## WHAT WE STILL NEED A dignified photograph of Ashli Babbitt in uniform. Not a mugshot, not a screengrab, not a news-agency image this site has no right to publish. Her official Air Force service portrait, or a photo her family chooses and releases. If you are family, or you are with 4Ashli, and you want her airman''s portrait on this page — reach out. It would be an honor. ## THE RECORD | | | | --- | --- | | Full name | Ashli Elizabeth Babbitt | | Age at death | 35 | | Home | Ocean Beach, San Diego, California | | Service | U.S. Air Force, Air Force Reserve, Air National Guard — 2004 to 2016 | | Career field | Security Forces | | Rank at separation | Senior Airman | | Final unit | 113th Security Forces Squadron, 113th Wing, D.C. Air National Guard | | Deployments | 8 | | Occupation | CEO, Fowler''s Pool Service and Supply, Inc., Spring Valley, CA | | Died | January 6, 2021, 2:44 p.m. — Speaker''s Lobby entrance, U.S. Capitol | | Cause of death | Gunshot wound to the left shoulder | | Manner of death | Homicide — D.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner | | Shooter | USCP Lt. Michael Byrd, House incident commander | | Criminal referral | Declined, April 14, 2021 — DOJ press release 21-052 | | Civil resolution | $4,975,000 FTCA settlement, executed June 6, 2025 | | Military honors | Full Military Funeral Honors offered August 15, 2025 | --- She was an airman. She was a business owner. She was somebody''s wife and somebody''s daughter. She was thirty-five. The government that trained her, deployed her eight times, and called her a Capital Guardian is the same government that shot her at 2:44 in the afternoon and spent four years explaining why nobody was responsible — and then wrote a check for four million nine hundred seventy-five thousand dollars. Say her name. Ashli Babbitt. *This is not gossip. This is the record.* This profile is unclaimed. If this is you — or your family — claiming it is free, forever.