Judicial Watch Files $30 Million Suit on behalf of Ashli Babbitt’s Husband and Estate


 

Ashli loved her country and wanted to show her support for President Trump’s America First policies and to see and hear the president speak live while he remained in office. Ashli did not go to Washington as part of a group or for any unlawful or nefarious purpose. She was there to exercise what she believed were her God-given, American liberties and freedoms.

After the rally, Ashli, like a great many other patriotic Americans attending the rally, walked to the Capitol peacefully, a distance of approximately 1.5 miles. Two undercover Metropolitan Police Department officers followed close behind Ashli as she climbed the stairs to the West Terrace. Ashli entered the Capitol on the Senate side long after others had done so. Once inside, Ashli encountered a female Capitol Police officer, who directed her to walk south toward the House side. Ashli complied, walking alone through the Capitol and ultimately arriving at the hallway outside the main door to the House chamber, where demonstrators had gathered. From there, Ashli walked by herself east, along the hallway outside the House chamber, then turned south, reaching the hallway outside the Speaker’s Lobby at the southeast corner of the Capitol.

The shooting occurred at the east entrance to the Speaker’s Lobby. After demonstrators filled the hallway outside the lobby, two individuals in the crowded, tightly packed hallway struck and dislodged the glass panels in the lobby doors and the right door sidelight. Lt. Byrd, who is a USCP commander and was the incident commander for the House on January 6, 2021, shot Ashli on sight as she raised herself up into the opening of the right door sidelight. Lt. Byrd later confessed that he shot Ashli before seeing her hands or assessing her intentions or even identifying her as female. Ashli was unarmed. Her hands were up in the air, empty, and in plain view of Lt. Byrd and other officers in the lobby.

The facts speak truth. Ashli was ambushed when she was shot by Lt. Byrd. Multiple witnesses at the scene yelled, “you just murdered her.”

Lt. Byrd was never charged or otherwise punished or disciplined for Ashli’s homicide.

Lt. Byrd, who is a USCP commander and was the incident commander for the House on January 6, 2021, shot Ashli as she raised herself up into the opening of the right door sidelight.… Not one member of Congress was in the lobby, which was guarded by multiple armed police officers. Additional armed police officers were in the hallway outside the lobby and/or on the adjoining stairway. Ashli could not have seen Lt. Byrd, who was positioned far to Ashli’s left and on the opposite side of the doors, near an opening to the Retiring Room, a distance of approximately 15 feet and an angle of approximately 160 degrees. Sgt. Timothy Lively, one of the armed officers guarding the lobby doors from the hallway, later told officials investigating the shooting, “I saw him . . . there was no way that woman would’ve seen that.” Lt. Byrd, who was not in uniform, did not identify himself as a police officer or otherwise make his presence known to Ashli. Lt. Byrd did not give Ashli any warnings or commands before shooting her dead.

Ashli remained conscious for minutes or longer after being shot by Lt. Byrd. Ashli experienced extreme pain, suffering, mental anguish, and intense fear before slipping into pre-terminal unconsciousness. The autopsy report identified the cause of death as a “gunshot wound to left anterior shoulder” with an onset interval of “minutes.” The fact that Ashli was alive and conscious in extreme pain and suffering is documented in videos of the shooting. Furthermore, nothing about the wound track described in the autopsy report would be expected to result in immediate death or instantaneous loss of consciousness, and Ashli’s lungs contained blood, further confirming that she was alive and breathing after being shot. Ashli was pronounced dead at Washington Hospital Center at 3:15 p.m. The medical examiner determined that the manner of death was homicide.

Less than two years before January 6, 2021, on or about February 25, 2019, Lt. Byrd left his loaded Glock 22 – the same firearm he used to shoot and kill Ashli Babbitt – in a bathroom in the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) complex. Lt. Byrd’s loaded Glock was discovered during a routine security sweep later the same day. Approximately 15,00 to 20,000 people pass through the CVC, which serves as the main entrance for visitors to the U.S. Capitol, daily during peak season (March-July). Lawmakers and staff charged with oversight of the USCP were not made aware of the incident until contacted by a reporter. 

Lt. Byrd’s police powers had been revoked on more than one occasion prior to January 6, 2021, for failing to meet or complete semiannual firearms qualification requirements. In fact, Lt. Byrd had a reputation among peers for not being a good shot. Under USCP’s range management system, an officer who fails to meet firearm qualification requirements is given one week of remedial training. If the officer still fails to qualify after remedial training, police powers are then revoked until the officer qualifies.

Lt. Byrd’s police powers also were revoked for a prior off-duty shooting into a stolen, moving vehicle in which the occupants were teenagers or juveniles. The stolen vehicle was Lt. Byrd’s car. Lt. Byrd fired multiple shots at the fleeing vehicle in a suburban area. Stray bullets from Lt. Byrd’s firearm struck the sides of homes nearby. An official investigation found that Lt. Byrd’s use of force was not justified.

As a result of the Biden administration’s reckless open border policies the federal agency charged with enforcing immigration laws inside the United States is getting slammed and discloses in its latest annual report that enforcement arrests nearly doubled in a year in which thousands of criminals were apprehended including dozens of known or suspected terrorists. In fiscal year 2023, which ended in September, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 170,590 illegal immigrants inside the country, almost half of them with criminal records. The criminal aliens had an average of four charges and convictions each, including more than 33,209 charges or convictions for assault, 7,520 for weapons offenses, 1,713 for homicide-related crimes and 1,615 for kidnapping. Removals also included 3,406 known or suspected gang members, 139 known or suspected terrorists, seven human rights violators, and 108 foreign fugitives wanted by their government for crimes including homicide, rape, terrorism, and kidnapping.

Among the most pervasive criminal offenses were Driving Under the Influence (DUI) and possession of serious drugs. Assault was also quite common among the undocumented perpetrators arrested last year and so were weapons offenses, sexual assault, and burglary. Thousands of the arrested migrants stole vehicles, were charged and/or convicted of fraudulent activities, robbery, forgery and property damage. More than 1,000 committed homicide and kidnapping and other types of threats not specified but considered serious enough by the government to be included in the year-end figures. “At-large arrests grew as broader migration trends contributed to an increase in unlawful entries to the Southwest border, driven by factors such as violence, food scarcity, severe poverty, unemployment, corruption, climate change, the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and dire economic conditions outside the United States,” the ICE report states.

The law enforcement agency with a staff of around 20,000 also conducted more than 200,000 domestic transfers of illegal immigrants last year and managed a record number of migrants under a controversial Biden administration catch-and-release policy known as Parole Plus Alternative to Detention (Parole+ATD) that freed over a million illegal aliens in the U.S. in a year, supposedly tracking them with technology and other tools. ICE Health Service Corps also spent a whopping $352 million to provide medical, dental, and mental health services for illegal immigrants detained in facilities throughout the nation, according to figures included in the document. “Those in ICE custody speak dozens of languages, including rare indigenous dialects, and the population includes individuals with a wide range of health statuses and unique physical and mental healthcare requirements — including some who receive comprehensive medical care for the first time after they are booked into detention,” the report says.

ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) division conducted an unprecedented number of investigations last year and executed 14,000 “noncitizen apprehensions,” seized an astounding 1.2 million pounds of narcotics, confiscated $5 million in assets and property, identified 1,806 victims of child exploitation, helped 731 victims of human trafficking, seized $949 million in criminally derived assets and more than $148 million in virtual currency from criminal elements. In cases involving drug cartels—officially known as Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCO)—that smuggle humans, narcotics, and money, HSI seized 69 firearms, 14,182 rounds of ammunition, 4,846 pounds of illicit drugs, and over $383,446 in currency. In one program alone, known as Operation Blue Lotus, HSI partnered with Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the frontline Homeland Security agency, to seize more than 8,200 pounds of fentanyl.

The distressing figures in the new ICE report are hardly surprising considering that 2023 was a record-breaker for illegal immigration with a ghastly 2.48 million foreigners entering the U.S. through the southern border, surpassing what was previously a historical high of 2.38 million in 2022. The last month of the fiscal year (September), federal agents encountered an unbelievable 269,735 illegal aliens constituting an all-time high for a single month and a substantial increase over August. The crisis is only worsening with time. This week a mainstream media outlet reports that there were 302,000 migrant encounters along the southwest border in December, marking the highest monthly total ever recorded.