WASHINGTON (AP) – The Air Force veteran killed during the Capitol attack was shot when she started to climb the broken part of a door that led to an area known as Speaker’s Lobby, published videos show online.
Minutes before the shooting on Wednesday, the large crowd of furious Trump supporters, one carrying an American flag, scoffed at several police officers who had their backs to the barricaded doors. Crowd members tried to force their way into the long corridor, which is outside the Chamber chamber where members of Congress were supposed to meet to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election.
A man punched a policeman in the shoulder glass, breaking it. Others shouted profanity at the police and members of Congress who can be seen through the glass.
Then, in one of the videos, the policemen who were guarding the doors to the Speaker Hall are seen moving away from the entrance.
When an unidentified person shouts, “Go, break it,” Ashli Babbitt, 35, wearing a backpack of stars and stripes, gets up and starts to pass through the waist opening when a shot is heard. She falls back. Another video shows other unidentified people trying to raise Babbitt. It falls back to the floor.
The brief moments captured in the clips, posted on YouTube and Twitter, show the chaotic and often violent moments before Babbitt’s death on Wednesday. Capitol Police on Thursday identified Babbitt of San Diego as the woman who was shot to death.
The music videos highlight the hostility and confusion shortly before Babbitt’s death. A third video shows the shot was fired by an unidentified police officer inside the Lobby of the Speaker, as well as other officers wearing helmets and weapons drawn up the stairs behind the crowd and arrived outside the door. One of them raises the gun towards the lobby doors and quickly lowers it.
The interior of the speakers’ lobby appears to be almost empty at that point, and the chairs have been stacked against the doors inside.
US Capitol Police said in a statement on Thursday that members of Congress were taking shelter while protesters were making their way towards the Chamber of Deputies.
“A USCP sworn officer fired his service weapon, hitting an adult woman,” whom the Capitol Police identified as Babbitt.
The videos suggest a lack of communication between officers, said Mark Lomax, who was executive director of the National Tactical Officers Association and is now CEO of consultancy Lancer Cobbs.
“There were policemen on the side of the protesters, engaged and incorporated into these individuals,” he said. “It didn’t seem like a threatening situation for the police.”
But the policeman on the other side of the door who shot must have noticed a threat, he said.
Geoffrey Alpert, a professor of criminology and an expert on the use of force at the University of South Carolina, questioned why the police blocking the door left before tactical officers climbing the stairs took their place.
“It didn’t make sense,” he said. “Things could have been avoided with them probably waiting 30 seconds.”
Wednesday’s pro-Trump unrest on the Capitol shocked other countries around the world and led to the resignation of three senior Capitol security officials because of their failure to prevent the breach.
Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick died on Thursday night from injuries sustained during the riot. He is the fifth person to die because of the Capitol protest and violence. Three other people died after “medical emergencies.
On social media, Babbitt used to speak out against President Trump’s frequent targets – illegal immigration, government orders to contain the coronavirus and, above all, its critics.
His Twitter account promoted conventional conservative views, but also included references to the QAnon conspiracy theory, which focuses on the groundless belief that Trump has been secretly fighting enemies of the state and a conspiracy of Satan-worshiping cannibals who operate a sex trafficking ring. childish.
Babbitt, who identified himself as a libertarian and a Second Amendment supporter, often posted baseless opinions about the electoral fraud of the president and his most radical supporters – activists whose conspiracy theories and unwavering support for Trump have attracted many online followers.
The videos she posted online show her fulmination against illegal immigration. His posts were sometimes profane.
Babbitt seemed to regard calls for wearing masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus as an affront to his personal freedoms. She supported a recall campaign against California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who imposed strict home orders.
“Mask-free autonomous zone better known as America,” read a large sign on the front door of a pool services company that she ran with her husband in Spring Valley, near San Diego.
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Associated Press writers Elliot Spagat and Amy Taxin of San Diego contributed to this report.