Jan. 6 (UPI) — Five years after a Capitol Police officer shot and killed Ashli Babbitt on Jan. 6, 2021, a march was held in her honor in the nation’s capital on Tuesday.
Dozens attended the march, which started at 11:45 a.m. EST at the Ellipse near the White House and ended at the outer edge of the Capitol grounds, where police stopped them, The Guardian reported.
A small group of counter-protesters also were at the Capitol, but police mostly kept them apart.
The former leader of the conservative Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, was among the event’s organizers and said it would be a “patriotic and peaceful march” ahead of its start time.
“Five years ago, a beautiful life was taken from us. A veteran and a patriot,” Tarrio said of Babbitt.
“So I ask those that are able to attend, please do so,” he added.” Justice has not been served.”
Babbitt, 35, was an Air Force veteran who had served in Afghanistan and Iraq and was the only person killed during the Capitol riot.
Tarrio afterward was among about 1,270 riot participants who were tried and convicted on related charges, but most were pardoned after President Donald Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 19, 2025.
He was sentenced to 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy and other crimes despite not participating in the Capitol riot, but Trump pardoned him and others after retaking the White House.
Babbitt’s mother, Micki Witthoeft, joined Tuesday’s march, and the marchers were surrounded by police and reporters, according to MS Now.
Some participants carried signs saying, “J6 Was An Inside Job,” “Thank You For Our Padons Trump” and blaming former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for not allowing the National Guard to maintain peace.
About halfway through the march, Tarrio and others delivered speeches in which they accused the Biden administration of weaponizing federal law enforcement.
“A year ago, many of us were sitting in a jail cell trying to figure out whether we were gonna get pardoned,” Tarrio said.
“We trusted the president, but we had to think about it,” he continued. “Were we gonna spend the next two decades of our life in here for a lie?”
The Jan. 6 protesters played “God Bless the USA” by Lee Greenwood and chanted Babbitt’s name while near the Capitol.
Several House and Senate lawmakers also held a commemorative event marking the fifth anniversary of the Capitol riot that initially was organized to protest the 2020 election results on the same day that Congress was scheduled to confirm President-elect Joe Biden’s election win.
Among them were Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.
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