The United States Air Force has offered full military funeral honors to Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran who was shot dead by police as she protested Joe Biden’s 2020 election win over Donald Trump on Jan. 6 four years ago.
Air Force Under Secretary Matthew Lohmeier on social media described the move as “long overdue,” reversing a Biden-era decision that had apparently denied Babbitt military funeral honors.
“After reviewing the circumstances of Ashli’s death, and considering the information that has come forward since then, I am persuaded that the previous determination was incorrect,” Lohmeier said. “Additionally, I would like to invite you and your family to meet me at the Pentagon to personally offer my condolences.”
While the specifics of what will be provided are unclear, military honors typically include a uniformed detail at the funeral, the playing of “Taps,” as well as the folding and presentation of a U.S. flag.
Babbitt was among a mob made up of hundreds of pro-Trump protesters who breached the U.S. Capitol in a bid to block the certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral win. She had a Trump flag wrapped around her shoulders and was attempting to climb through the broken window of a barricaded door leading to the Speaker’s Lobby when she was shot by Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd.
Byrd was cleared of all liability by federal prosecutors and an internal Capitol Police investigation.
In May, the Trump administration agreed to pay just under $5 million to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit that her family filed over her shooting.
Babbitt spent four years on active duty from 2004 to 2008 and then served in the Air Force Reserves from 2008 to 2010, and the Air National Guard from 2010 to 2016, CNN reported. She deployed to Afghanistan in 2005, Iraq in 2006, and the United Arab Emirates in 2012 and 2014. She was 35 years old at the time of her death.
With News Wire Services
