The US Air Force has reversed a prior decision and will extend military funeral honors to Senior Airman Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer during the January 6, 2021, riot.
Babbitt, a 14-year Air Force veteran, was initially denied funeral honors by Air Force leadership in February 2021. At the time, Lt. Gen. Brian Kelly wrote that granting such honors “would bring discredit upon the Air Force.”
The decision has now been overturned and in an August 15 letter sent to Babbitt’s husband, Aaron, Undersecretary of the Air Force Matthew Lohmeier wrote that after reviewing the circumstances of her death and “considering the information that has come forward since then,” he concluded the earlier denial was “incorrect.” Additionally, Lohmeier offered to meet with Babbitt’s family at the Pentagon.
The reversal comes weeks after the federal government agreed to a nearly $5 million settlement with Babbitt’s family in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch. The suit alleged Babbitt was “ambushed and defenseless” when she was fatally shot as she attempted to climb through a broken door window near the House chamber.
