Friends and family of Capitol Hill victims speak out against the violence

Friends and family of two Capitol Hill victims have spoken out against their deaths as one relative blamed President Trump for inciting the riot that killed ‘four of his biggest fans.’ 

Five people including one police officer were killed in Wednesday’s violent siege of the Capitol after dozens of Trump supporters stormed the federal building to protest Joe Biden’s election win.  

Ashli Babbitt, a US Air Force veteran from San Diego, was among those who died after she was shot by Capitol Police as she attempted to climb through a broken window. 

Those close to the 35-year-old have paid tribute to Babbitt in recent days remembering her as a passionate Trump supporter and and true ‘patriot’.

In an interview with The Sun on Friday, Babbitt’s friend Jack Feeley called her death an ‘execution’ and said she would have been ‘furious’ about ‘going down without a fight.’ 

‘That was an execution,’ he told the publication. ‘[It] breaks my heart to know millions of people watched my friend be executed on live television.’

‘I wish she was still here, but I’m really proud of her for being there,’ he added. 

‘I’ll never get over this bullsh*t done to her.’ 

Footage of the fatal incident shows Babbitt and a group of Trump supporters attempting to force their way through double doors which had been barricaded after they stormed in. 

Members of the group are seen attempting to smash windows and physically push through the doors as a number of armed officers stand guard on the other side, with their guns drawn.

As Babbitt can be seen attempting to climb up through a broken window, one rioter shouts: ‘He’s got a gun’ but the warning comes too late. The officer then fires a single shot, sending the veteran crashing down to the ground on her back.

A number of shocked on-lookers are heard shouting as the video cuts out. A second clip shows blood pouring from her mouth as protesters scramble around her and officers with rifles move in to secure the hallway, telling the rioters to get on the ground.

Although Babbitt was a casualty in the violence Feeley claimed she would have believed the cause was worth dying for. 

‘She may have laid down her rifle, but she was still willing to lay down her life for her country and what she strongly believed in,’ he said. 

‘She wasn’t just passionate about Trump, she was the strongest advocate I knew about making things right and fair.

‘All she wanted was the end to corruption and the terrible things happening all the way from the top of government down to her local city officials.’ 

Babbitt was the only victim to die at the hands of law enforcement. The other three victims died from a heart attack, a stroke and being trampled in the Rotunda.  

Roseanne Boyland, 34, was ‘trampled in the Rotunda’, her family told DailyMail.com on Thursday after police she had been potentially ‘crushed’ in the mob. 

Her brother-in-law, Justin Cave, spoke out against the fatal incident saying the rally cost her her life and blamed Trump for her death.  

‘I’ve never tried to be a political person but it’s my own personal belief that the president’s words incited a riot that killed four of his biggest fans last night and I believe that we should invoke the 25th Amendment at this time,’ Cave said in a prepared statement he read aloud to CBS 46.

‘Roseanne, like a lot of people there, was really passionate about her beliefs as was her right. 

In a statement that he read aloud, he said: ‘Our family is devastated by the loss of Roseanne. She was a wonderful sister, daughter and aunt. Anyone who knew her knows how compassionate she was.

‘She would always put others before herself. As we watched these awful events unfold, we hoped that Roseanne was not among the crowd.’

Kevin Greeson, 55, from Alabama and Benjamin Phillips, 50, from Pennsylvania, were also among those who died on Wednesday. 

Philips, a computer programmer who traveled to DC with dozens of other Trump fans from Pennsylvania, suffered a stroke. 

Philips had founded the website Trumparoo, where Trump supporters can speak to each other. It was only when the group was heading back home that they learned Philips had died.

Greeson, who had high blood pressure, suffered a heart attack ‘in the midst of the excitement’, his family said. 

President Donald Trump has said nothing of their deaths himself.

After more than 24 hours of public silence since his supporters stormed the Capitol, Trump released a short video Thursday finally condemning the ‘heinous’ attack and called for national ‘healing’ and an ‘orderly’ and ‘seamless’ transition to a new administration. 

He later lost his tweeting privileges again – this time permanently – on Friday after the social media company deemed two of his tweets were in breach of its Glorification of Violence policy.  

The first tweet read: ‘The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future.

‘They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!’

In the second called out by Twitter, the president wrote that he would not be attending Joe Biden’s inauguration. 

Twitter claimed that the tweets had to be ‘read in the context of broader events in the country and the ways in which the President’s statements can be mobilized by different audiences, including to incite violence, as well as in the context of the pattern of behavior from this account in recent weeks’. 

The company said that Trump was guilty of the glorification of violence by calling Wednesday’s rioters ‘American patriots’ in the first tweet.