The woman shot and killed inside the U.S. Capitol during a violent pro-Trump siege on Wednesday was an Ocean Beach resident, according to her family and media reports.
Her husband confirmed to KUSI that the woman, whose shot was captured on video, was Ashli Elizabeth Babbitt, 35, and said she was an Air Force veteran.
A family member who said he had seen videos of the shooting – spectator images flooded the Internet – and are convinced that the woman was Babbitt.
“It’s her. It’s her. It’s definitely her,” said the family member.
But the family was unable to confirm this with the authorities in Washington DC
“No one contacted us,” said the family member. “No official person answered us, despite many calls.”
Videos showing the meeting quickly spread online. One shows several people at the doors of the speaker’s lobby, a corridor that leads to the Chamber of Deputies. The upper half of the doors is made of glass and the doors appear to be protected by an internal barricade with chairs and tables. Some people in the crowd knocked on the windows until they broke.
A person started to climb a broken window. A single shot pops and the person – a woman – falls to the floor. Others surround her and some scream for help.
Shortly after KUSI released his name for the first time, a Babbitt profile on Facebook listed the name of her current husband. Later on Wednesday night, the profile was changed and its name removed.
Reporters and camera crews gathered outside the couple’s home overnight.
Business records show that Babbitt was the CEO of Fowler’s Pool Service & Supply, Inc. in Spring Valley. Her husband is listed as the company’s chief financial officer.
In an email late on Wednesday, Babbitt’s ex-husband Timothy McEntee called her “a wonderful woman with a big heart and a strong mind”. McEntee said he and Babbitt were married from April 2005 until May 2019. Her Facebook page indicates that she remarried that year.
“I am in a state of shock and I feel absolutely terrible for your family,” wrote McEntee. “She loved America with all her heart. It really is a sad day. ”
McEntee and Babbitt served together in the United States Air Force while they were married. McEntee wrote that he recognized Babbitt instantly when he saw a photo of the woman who was shot.
“[I] I immediately knew it was her, but I didn’t know she was in town, so I initially had doubts because she lives in California, ”wrote McEntee. “But [I] he held out his hand to a friend and he said she was in town for the rally. “
Her Twitter account included a photo posted in September of her with a “We are Q” T-shirt in front of a harbor, with hashtags that included # TrumpBoatParade2020.
The post also included the initialism WWG1WGA – “Where we go one, we all go” – used by followers of QAnon, who promotes baseless conspiracy theories.