Donald Trump demands to know which Capitol Police officer killed rioter Ashli Babbitt

Six months after his supporters stormed the Capitol, Donald Trump is fixated on a deadly moment that claimed one of his supporters’ lives.

On July 1, Donald Trump issued one of the shortest official statements in the history of US politics. It was four words long.

“Who shot Ashli Babbitt?” the former president asked.

Ms Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force veteran, was among the Trump supporters who attacked the US Capitol on January 6 in a last-ditch attempt to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s election victory.

A devoted fan of Mr Trump, she was also a believer in the QAnon conspiracy theory.

“Nothing will stop us,” she tweeted the day before the riot.

“They can try and try and try but the storm is here and it is descending upon D.C. in less than 24 hours.”

“The storm is here” is a common QAnon slogan.

She was shot dead by a police officer as she tried to force her way through a barricaded door.

The Capitol riot happened six months ago, but Mr Trump didn’t fully embrace Ms Babbitt until the past two weeks.

Since that four-word statement, he has repeatedly brought up her death in public, calling her “innocent” and demanding that the officer who killed her be identified.

RELATED: Babbitt believed Trump was ‘worth dying for’

Ashli Babbitt, who was killed while storming the Capitol on January 6.

“The person that shot Ashli Babbitt – boom, right through the head, just boom – there was no reason for that,” Mr Trump said during a media conference in Bedminster, New Jersey on July 7, where he’d just announced a series of lawsuits against Facebook, Twitter and Google.

“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.”

He made these remarks in response to a question asking what he did to stop the insurrection while it was happening on January 6.

Yesterday, in an interview with Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, he went further.

“Who shot Ashli Babbitt? Why are they keeping that secret?” Mr Trump asked.

“Who was the person who shot an innocent, wonderful, incredible woman, a military woman, right in the head?

“And there’s no repercussions. If that were on the other side, it would be the biggest story in this country. Who shot Ashli Babbitt? People want to know. And why?”

Mr Trump speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Texas. Picture: Andy Jacobsohn/AFP

While the person who killed Ms Babbitt has not been named, we do know what happened.

A Capitol Police officer shot her in her left shoulder (not in the head) as a mob of Mr Trump’s supporters tried to break through a barricaded door and enter the Speaker’s Lobby, which is adjacent to the House of Representatives chamber.

At the time of the shooting, police were still in the process of evacuating members of Congress from the chamber.

Ms Babbitt, at the front of the mob, was attempting to climb through a section of the door where the glass had been broken. One of the officers on the other side fired a single gunshot, which caused her to collapse backwards. She received medical treatment at the scene and died in hospital shortly afterwards.

You can watch footage of the incident here.

The officer who shot Ms Babbitt is a lieutenant. His lawyer has said he, along with other officers, ordered rioters not to pass the barricade before opening fire.

After a three-month investigation, prosecutors from the US attorney’s office decided not to charge him.

“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-defence or in defence of the members of Congress,” they said.

“They know who shot Ashli Babbitt. They’re protecting that person,” Mr Trump told Ms Bartiromo yesterday.

“I’ve heard also that it was the head of security for a certain high official. A Democrat. And we’ll see. Because it’s going to come out.”

Mr Trump provided no evidence to support this theory. Today NBC News, citing a senior law enforcement official, reported the officer in question was not, in fact, part of a security detail for a member of Congress.

Ms Babbitt was a 14-year veteran of the US Air Force.

Fellow Trump supporters visit a memorial for Ms Babbitt near the Capitol, the day after she was killed. Picture: Joe Raedle/Getty Images/AFP

Ms Babbitt was one of seven people who died on or shortly after January 6.

Another of Mr Trump’s supporters, 34-year-old Rosanne Boyland, died from a drug overdose. Footage showed other rioters trampling over her body to fight with police.

Two more protesters, Kevin Greeson and Benjamin Phillips, died from heart failure.

Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick collapsed after clashing with rioters and died the next day after suffering two strokes.

And two other police officers, Jeffrey Smith and Howard Liebengood, took their own lives in the aftermath of the attack.

During the interview with Fox Business, Mr Trump claimed his supporters had been peaceful, focusing on his rally at the Ellipse instead of the events at the Capitol in the following hours.

“What they were complaining about, and the reason in my opinion you had over a million people there, which the press doesn’t like to report at all because it shows too much activity, too much spirit and faith and love. There was such love at that rally,” he said.

(The press has not reported there were “over a million” people there because there were not “over a million people” there. There were several thousand.)

“You had over a million people there. They were there for one reason: the rigged election. They felt the election was rigged. That’s why they were there,” he continued.

“And they were peaceful people. These were great people. The crowd was unbelievable. And I mention the word love. The love in the air, I’ve never seen anything like it. And that is why they went to Washington.”

He said there had been a “lovefest” between the Capitol Police and the people who marched on the Capitol after the rally.

Here is some fresh footage of that lovefest.

The day after Donald Trump said there was a “lovefest between the Capitol Police and the people that walked down to the Capitol” on Jan. 6, the feds have released two more videos showing the pro-Trump mob attacking police officers at the Capitol. https://t.co/MFDBZebBmipic.twitter.com/GAV6CPZ7hc

— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) July 12, 2021

More than 560 rioters have been arrested and charged with crimes. Several dozen face counts for using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to a police officer.

About 140 officers were hurt in the violence.