Capital Policed arrested Ashli Babbitt’s mother for allegedly violating two traffic regulations during the second anniversary of the Jan. 6 Anniversary March at the Capitol.
Micki Witthoeft, Babbitt’s mother, was charged with “blocking and obstructing roadways” and “obeying an order,” according to a press release by the Capitol Police.
Witthoeft was part of a group assembling to remember the events on Jan. 6 when Capitol police claimed she refused to move the march off the roadway on Independence Avenue near First Street. The group allegedly did not have a permit to march on Capitol grounds and were instructed to move out of the street or face arrest, according to the police.
As Micki Witthoeft, mother of Ashli Babbitt, was put into a United States Capitol Police vehicle in handcuffs, I asked if she had anything to say.
“Yeah, Capitol Police suck ass!” she replied.
Her and her supporters chanted “Ashli Babbitt! Ashli Babbitt!” before she was taken. pic.twitter.com/gAp1UtXUa1
— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) January 6, 2023
“The officers and officials told the group to get out of the road or the group would be arrested. The sidewalk was open,” Capitol police reported. “A woman in the group was given multiple warnings to get out of the road. Instead of getting out of the road, the woman refused to leave, turned around with her hands behind her back, and asked to be arrested.”
A video recording of the alleged incident shows a woman holding a single red rose, identified by the documentarian Ford Fischer as Witthoeft, being abruptly corralled to the opposite side of the road by uniformed police.
An unidentified woman attempts to interject on behalf of Babbitt’s mother when a separate officer stops her to explain that the group is facing arrest if they do not move to the sidewalk.
The woman, identified by Fischer as Witthoeft, can then be seen wiping her face before turning herself into Capitol police custody.
Witthoeft has since been released with a citation to appear in court at a later date, the police said. (RELATED: New Federal Regulation Could Devastate Coastal Communities)
Babbitt, a 14-year U.S. Air Force veteran, was the only person to die during the events on Jan. 6 after being fatally shot in the left shoulder by Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd.