The American government will pay $5 million to the relatives of Capitol rioter Ashli Babbitt. The woman was shot dead by police when she stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Abbitt’s family had sued the government and demanded $30 million. A settlement has now been reached with the government of President Donald Trump. It will now pay the family $5 million, writes The Washington Post.
The 35-year-old Babbitt was one of Trump’s supporters who violently stormed the American parliament building after Joe Biden won the elections. Capitol stormers wanted to reverse the victory after Trump had claimed without evidence that there had been fraud.
Babbitt was hit in the shoulder by a police bullet when she climbed through a broken window deep in the Capitol despite multiple warnings. Trump has made Babbitt a martyr. At the beginning of his second term in January, he decided to pardon all the people who had been arrested during the storming.
Around eleven hundred others have been convicted, including members of the far-right organizations Oath Keepers and Proud Boys. These are mainly (former) veterans and (former) police officers. The leaders of those militant groups received 18 and 22 years in prison for directing the storming. The QAnon shaman, Jacob Chansley, was sentenced to more than three years in prison.
Trump pardoned some stormers at the beginning of this year, but not (yet) everyone. In the article below you can read more about granting pardons to the Capitol stormers.