Jan. 6 Rioter Killed As She Stormed Capitol Will Receive Military Funeral Honors

The Babbitt family also received a settlement of $5 million earlier this year.

Despite the fact that Ashli Babbitt attempted to climb through a shattered glass door inside the U.S. Capitol as lawmakers fled for their lives during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and ignored multiple commands to stand down before she was fatally shot, the U.S. Air Force has decided it will grant the deceased veteran a funeral replete with military honors.

The request, granted Aug. 15 by Air Force Under Secretary Matthew Lohmeier, reverses a Biden-era decision that had denied the honor. Babbitt illegally entered the U.S. Capitol during the mob assault, then-Air Force Lt. Gen. Brian Kelly said in a 2021 letter to the woman’s family. Honoring Babbitt, Kelly wrote, “would bring discredit upon the U.S. Air Force.”

But after “reviewing the circumstances of Ashli’s death and considering the information that has come forward since then,” Lohmeier said he was “persuaded that the previous determination was incorrect.”

The circumstances of Babbit’s death have not changed since she was fatally shot by U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd inside the Speaker’s Lobby. Byrd was extensively investigated by the Justice Department as well as the Capitol Police force and cleared of any wrongdoing in August 2021. Byrd told news outlets after he was cleared that when he saw Babbitt coming through the hole in the Speaker’s Lobby door, he couldn’t tell whether she was armed.

Though she was not armed, she was wearing a backpack and, with lawmakers and staff fleeing behind him and rioters pouring in and threatening to overwhelm him at any moment, Byrd said he made a choice of “last resort” to protect Congress, staff, and other police inside the Capitol. Byrd said he made multiple requests for Babbitt to stand down and she refused.