Ashli Babbitt’s family is planning to sue the U.S. Capitol Police Department and the officer who shot and killed Babbitt during the incursion of the Capitol on Jan. 6, their attorney announced Thursday.
Plans for the lawsuit, which will seek “at least $10 million” in damages, were announced after federal prosecutors decided not to press criminal charges against the plainclothes Capitol police lieutenant who killed Babbitt, Zenger News reported Thursday.
“Prosecutors would have to prove not only that the officer used force that was constitutionally unreasonable, but that the officer did so ‘willfully,’ which the Supreme Court has interpreted to mean that the officer acted with a bad purpose to disregard the law,” the Justice Department said in a statement April 14.
“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.”
