The Air Force veteran who was shot dead when she broke into the Capitol was an “excellent patriot”, a fanatic follower of President Trump, her grandfather said.
Ashli Babbitt, 35, of San Diego, was among the five people who died after the building was breached on Wednesday after a rally held previously outside the White House by Trump, whom she strongly supported since the first announcement of your offer for the White House.
“Since he ran for election in 2015, she’s been crazy about Trump,” Babbitt’s grandfather Tony Mazziott told “Good Morning America” in an interview. “She thinks he is the Lord’s final coming, I think.”
The day before being killed by an unidentified Capitol police officer, married Babbitt tweeted that “nothing is going to stop us” while vowing that a “storm” would fall on Washington in 24 hours.
Babbitt – who served 12 years in the Air Force, Air Force Reserves and Air National Guard – was a “loving person” who regularly attended Trump rallies, his grandfather said.
“She served time in the military and is passionate about everything, especially Donald Trump, for some reason,” continued Mazziott.
Babbitt was also sent three times during military service, including trips to Afghanistan and Iraq, according to the report.
Mazziott told KGTV that Babbitt was his only granddaughter and lived with him for several years as a child.
“We support your passion, what can I say?” Mazziott told the station. “You didn’t argue with her because you would never win.”
Babbitt’s husband, meanwhile, told KSWB that he reached out to his wife about 30 minutes before she was shot, but he never had an answer. She was later declared dead in a hospital.
“She loved her country and was doing what she felt was right to support her, joining people with similar ideas who also love her president and her country,” Aaron Babbitt told the station. “She was expressing her opinion and was killed for it.”
A Republican Party lawmaker who witnessed the shooting said on Thursday that Babbitt was shot while trying to break into the House chambers. The officer who shot her “had no choice” but to open fire, Dep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) Told “GMA” on Thursday.