WASHINGTON, D.C. – Former President Trump released a statement on Wednesday, claiming that he knows the identity of the police officer who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt who was unarmed during the January 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol building, referring to the cop as a “murderer.”
Babbitt, 35, was shot and killed by a police officer as she attempted to climb through a broken window in a barricaded doorway leading to the Speaker’s Lobby as supporters of Trump were attempting to stop Congress from completing the certification of the 2020 presidential election results.
In his statement, Trump noted that he had met with Babbitt’s family, and expressed anger that she was killed by the officer, whose identity he claims to know.
“I spoke to the wonderful mother and devoted husband of Ashli Babbitt, who was murdered at the hands of someone who should never have pulled the trigger of his gun. We know who he is. If that happened to the ‘other side,’ there would be riots all over America and yet, there are far more people represented by Ashli, who truly loved America, than there are on the other side,” Trump’s statement said.
“The Radical Left haters cannot be allowed to get away with this. There must be justice!” Trump added.
Babbitt, who had served in the Air Force for 14 years and was working at her family’s pool supply company at the time of her death, has been held up as a martyr of sorts by many Republicans and conservatives who claim that she was unjustly killed and who have attempted to play down the seriousness of the Capitol riots.
This is not the first time Trump has shown support for Babbitt. At a rally in July, the former president also suggested that the police officer in question – whose identity has not been publicly revealed – was unjustified in killing her.
“The person that shot Ashli Babbitt—boom, right through the head,” he said. “Just, boom. There was no reason for that. And why isn’t that person being opened up, and why isn’t that being studied? They’ve already written it off. They said that case is closed. If that were the opposite, that case would be going on for years and years, and it would not be pretty.”
After an investigation, the Department of Justice declined to bring charges against the officer who shot Babbitt, saying “the investigation revealed no evidence to establish that, at the time the officer fired a single shot at Ms. Babbitt, the officer did not reasonably believe that it was necessary to do so in self-defense or in defense of the Members of Congress and others evacuating the House Chamber.”
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