Ashli Babbitt to get full military funeral honors following settlement in Capitol breach death

The U.S. Air Force will provide full military funeral honors to Ashli Babbitt, the San Diego woman who was fatally shot during the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol breach.

The decision reverses a Biden administration denial of a military funeral for Babbitt, 35, and comes months after the federal government settled a wrongful death lawsuit brought by Babbitt’s family for nearly $5 million.

The reversal was outlined in an Aug. 15 letter penned by Under Secretary of the Air Force Matthew L. Lohmeier to Babbitt’s mother and her widower.

“On behalf of the Secretary of the Air Force, I write to extend the offer for Military Funeral Honors for (Senior Airman) Ashli Babbitt,” Lohmeier wrote. “I understand that the family’s initial request was denied by Air Force leadership in a letter dated February 9, 2021. However, 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.”

Tom Fitton, president of the conservative legal group Judicial Watch, which represented Babbitt’s family in its litigation, said in a statement, “Ashli Babbitt’s family is grateful to President Trump, Secretary Hegseth and Under Secretary Lohmeier for reversing the Biden Defense Department’s cruel decision to deny Ashli funeral honors as a distinguished veteran of the Air Force.”

Babbitt was among a mob of people who stormed the U.S. Capitol under the belief that the 2020 election had been “stolen” from President Donald Trump. She was climbing through the broken window of a barricaded door to the Speaker’s Lobby when she was shot. The Department of Justice did not pursue criminal charges against Lt. Michael Byrd, the officer who shot her, while U.S. Capitol police said he would not face internal discipline.

Her family had sought $30 million in its lawsuit and claimed Babbitt was “ambushed” by Byrd, who shot her without “any warnings or commands.”

In an August 2021 television interview, Byrd told NBC News that he pulled the trigger as a “last resort.”

During the interview, Byrd said, “I tried to wait as long as I could. I hoped and prayed no one tried to enter through those doors. But their failure to comply required me to take the appropriate action to save the lives of members of Congress and myself and my fellow officers.”

On his first day back in the White House in January, Trump commuted the sentences of those convicted of plotting to stop the peaceful transfer of power, and granted “a full, complete and unconditional pardon” to the roughly 1,500 others who had been charged or convicted of offenses related to the breach, including several San Diegans.

Staff writer Kristina Davis contributed to this report.