A cloud of colored smoke appears as a crowd of US President Donald Trump supporters storm the US Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021.
Leah Millis | Reuters
Ashli Babbitt’s family, who were fatally shot in the January 6 invasion of the U.S. Capitol, are planning to sue the police and the officer who fired the gun for at least $ 10 million.
The news of the impending lawsuit, first reported by Newsweek, came more than two weeks after the Justice Department announced it would not file a criminal complaint against the officer who killed Babbitt.
Terrell Roberts, a lawyer for the Babbitt family, told CNBC Thursday that it had not determined when or in which court the civil lawsuit against the US Capitol Police would be filed.
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The $ 10 million figure, Roberts said, is an estimate of financial losses that include the value of Babbitt’s “services to her husband and combined with Ashli’s potential income had she lived.”
“Recovery potential for non-financial losses is also factored into the amount,” said Roberts.
Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force veteran, was among the hundreds of supporters of former President Donald Trump who stormed the Capitol on January 6 and thwarted Congress’s efforts to confirm President Joe Biden’s election victory.
The invasion that followed Trump and insisted on a nearby rally that his supporters march to the Capitol and pressure Republicans not to accept the election results forced the USCP to evacuate federal lawmakers.
The invasion resulted in five deaths.
Babbitt and a group of rioters were given access to a hallway in front of the speaker’s lobby that leads to the chamber of the house.
She tried to climb headfirst through the broken glass window of a door that separated the hall from the lobby, which had been barricaded with furniture from inside. Other members of the crowd broke chunks of glass on the doors while beating them “with their hands, flagpoles, helmets and other items,” the Justice Department said.
Babbitt was once shot in the left shoulder by an officer in the lobby who had drawn his service pistol. She fell backwards on the floor. She was taken to the Washington Hospital Center, where she died, the DOJ said.
The agency announced on April 14 that it had stopped investigating the shooting and would not file criminal charges against the unpublished officer. The family rejected the DOJ’s decision and promised to bring civil lawsuits.
Roberts said he would send a notice to the USCP “within the next 10 days” stating his intention to file a lawsuit in federal court in Washington, DC, Newsweek reported Thursday.
