Ashli Babbitt’s mother arrested in Washington, D.C., in Jan. 6 protest
The mother of Ashli Babbitt, the Ocean Beach woman who was fatally shot by police during the January 2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol, was arrested Jan. 6 in Washington, D.C., on suspicion of blocking a street on the Capitol grounds during a demonstration on the second anniversary of her daughter’s death.
Micki Witthoeft, 58, was among a group of demonstrators who were blocking Independence Avenue SW near First Street SW, according to a statement from Capitol Police.
Police said Witthoeft was warned multiple times to get out of the street.
“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,” according to Capitol Police.
Witthoeft was processed, given a citation to appear in court and released, police said.
Get Point Loma-OB Monthly in your inbox every month
News and features about Point Loma and Ocean Beach every month for free
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Point Loma-OB Monthly.
Babbitt, 35, an Air Force veteran, was climbing through the broken window of a barricaded door to the Speaker’s Lobby when she was shot Jan. 6, 2021. The Department of Justice later announced it would not pursue criminal charges against Lt. Michael Byrd, the officer who shot her.
Capitol Police also said Byrd would not face internal discipline in connection with the shooting.
Babbitt’s widower, Aaron Babbitt, said on Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News that Witthoeft had been in the District of Columbia since early August, “sitting outside the jail at night and protesting outside the Capitol.”
“I’m not going to say it’s a coincidence she was finally arrested on Jan. 6, but that doesn’t really smell right,” Aaron Babbitt told Carlson.
Ashli Babbitt’s brother, Roger Witthoeft Jr. of Ocean Beach, was placed on probation Dec. 13 in connection with two incidents.
He was convicted by a jury of misdemeanor battery and a hate-crime allegation in a September 2021 attack on a San Diego Gas & Electric worker in Point Loma that was accompanied by racial slurs against the man, who is Latino.
He also pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disturbing the peace in an Ocean Beach incident in January 2022 in which he was accused of striking a 65-year-old man who was blocking a sidewalk with his car as he helped a friend unload her wheelchair from the vehicle.
Roger Witthoeft’s attorney argued the incidents were sparked by trauma from the death of Witthoeft’s sister.
— Point Loma-OB Monthly staff contributed to this report.