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- Ashli Babbitt died after she was shot during the Capitol riot on January 6.
- Conservatives and far-right activists are posting the identity of the cop they say killed Babbitt.
- The renewed online attention comes after Trump invoked Babbitt's name in an email to supporters.
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Six months after the riot at the US Capitol, conservatives – encouraged by former President Donald Trump – are spamming social media with the alleged name of the police officer who shot Ashli Babbitt.
On Wednesday, multiple top posts on a fringe far-right message board called for "justice" for Babbitt and shared the alleged name of her shooter. One post, which was one of the site's most popular threads of the last 24 hours with more than 3,000 likes, called for the arrest of the officer.
One Twitter user shared the alleged name of Babbitt's shooter on Wednesday and questioned why he hasn't been "tried or arrested" yet, reaching 8,200 likes and nearly 3,000 retweets. It was not immediately clear whether this violated Twitter's Terms of Service. A Twitter representative did not immediately return a request for comment.
British talk show host Piers Morgan wrote an article for the DailyMail published Wednesday in which he claimed to know the identity of the shooter – though he did not reveal it – and said the name must be released to the public for the sake of "transparency," no matter whether you believe Babbitt was a "traitor or a patriot."
Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force veteran with a history of sharing far-right conspiracy theories like QAnon online, was one of five people who died as a result of the riot in Washington. During the riot, an officer shot Babbitt in the left shoulder as she attempted to surge through a broken window and pass into the Capitol building, according to The New York Times.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) declined to bring criminal charges against the officer after it found in an investigation that he did not violate Babbitt's rights. Insider is not sharing the name of the alleged officer, as it has not been verified.
"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," the DOJ wrote in a statement.
Still, Babbitt has become a major symbol for the right, with Republicans including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia calling for "justice" for Babbitt's death in a speech on the House floor in May and Fox News host Tucker Carlson demanding to know who killed Babbitt in a June segment. As Talia Lavin reported for New York Magazine, Babbitt is now the "most visible" hero of the pro-Trump Capitol insurrectionists.
The renewed online attention comes after Trump invoked Babbitt's name in a four-word email to his supporters last Thursday: "Who killed Ashli Babbitt?" In a press conference on Wednesday, the former president again referenced Babbitt, falsely claiming that there "were no guns in the Capitol except the gun that shot Ashli Babbitt."
On Tuesday, the six-month anniversary of the Capitol riot, Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona followed Trump by issuing a letter "in remembrance" of Babbitt.
In response to the renewed interest in Babbitt's death, many Twitter users criticized conservatives for treating the rioter like a martyr.
"Conservatives arguing that Ashli Babbitt was unjustly shot & demanding the name of the officer who killed her confirms that they believe the role of police is to murder Black people," the grassroots activist @BreeNewsome wrote on Twitter.
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