Ashli Babbitt was murdered today at the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. as she was participating in a mostly peaceful demonstration. As protesters moved their protest to the interior of the building an unidentified officer fired on the crowd. The shooting was caught on video (embedded below). Babbitt was towards the front of the crowd near a locked door and did not appear to be armed.
Occupying government buildings is a form of peaceful protest that Americans have engaged in for generations. People that disagree with legislatures have repeatedly entered legislative chambers to express their views. This past August, Ammon Bundy was arrested for taking a seat in the Idaho State Capitol Building and refusing to leave. He was arrested and wheeled out of the building in his chair (https://www.npr.org/2020/08/25/906046911/ammon-bundy-is-arrested-and-wheeled-out-of-the-idaho-statehouse). There was no cause to shoot Bundy because he was unarmed. Had the police locked the door and he tried to get inside that would not have justified opening fire. Video footage of the pro-Trump protesters appears consistent with a mostly peaceful occupation protest. You can look up similar protests on Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_(protest). There is no justification for trained law enforcement officers to shoot an unarmed woman whose only crime seems to be trying to force her way into a government building. Police are issued tasers and other less than lethal munitions for such scenarios.
We do not know the identity of the officer at this time and his name may never be released. We do know that security duties at the U.S. Capitol Building are typically carried out by the United States Capitol Police (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Capitol_Police), but that the Secret Service and other agencies operate there as well. We do know that Capitol Police officers and armed men in suits were face to face with protesters that had gained entry to the capitol building (https://www.msnbc.com/mtp-daily/watch/footage-shows-single-capitol-police-officer-retreating-from-protesters-98952261898), but we have yet to see those protesters doing anything violent. We have seen them damaging property and walking through the building, but that appears to be it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOGXkMmtl6I). Some of them managed to enter the House Chambers and one of them stood behind the podium with their fist in the air (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvDg9ttjYIw). Left wing media outlets (ex: CNN, Don Lemon, MSNBC) are painting these protesters as "domestic terrorists" and "violent insurrectionists." These are the same outlets that call left wing protesters mostly peaceful. The only difference between these protesters and others appears to be who they support. Both groups have been mostly peaceful, but you wouldn't know that by watching the news. If you watch CNN you hear about mostly peaceful Black Lives Matter protests and a "mob insurrection to destroy our Capitol" (Don Lemon). If you watch Fox News you hear about the "violent Antifa terrorists" and a "protest" at the Capitol Building.
In the video below you hear the eyewitness account by someone with blood on their hands. The witness describes Ashli Babbitt being needlessly murdered by police. We have taken screenshots of various cops as well as the victim and added them to the collage above. If you know the names of any of these officers please post them in the comments section of this page.
UPDATE: To people that say she deserved it for storming a government building: Let's assume for a second that she was breaking a window in that door before the officer opened fire. That does not justify shooting her. Breaking a window is a property crime. Deadly force is not a justifiable means of defending property because the law recognizes that property is less important than people. This is not analogous to a burglary because a government building is categorically different than a private residence. When people occupy a government building the police have the right to evict them, but they also have the obligation to use less than lethal force. That is why people that broke into the federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon last summer were shot with rubber bullets, bean bags, tear gas, and other usually non-lethal objects because the threat they posed to the building did not create a threat to the lives of the officers defending it. Had the U.S. Marshals defending the courthouse fired a live round into the crowd we would have reached the same conclusion that we have reached in this case so far.
UPDATE: Video has surfaced showing the shooter lying in wait in a doorway to the far left https://copblaster.com/blast/34383/capitol-hill-shooter-caught-on-camera-lying-in-wait-for-ashli-babbitt