Ashli Babbitt. People.com phioto

On Wednesday when protesters stormed the Capitol in Washington D.C., a 35-year-old Ashli Babbitt, a California native and Air Force veteran, was shot dead when the National Guard was activated. It was her former husband, Timothy McEntee, who made the revelation.

McEntee, as reported by Washington Post, wrote in text messages that Babbitt, of San Diego, was deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq in the Air Force, before other deployments with the National Guard to Kuwait and Qatar. McEntee and Babbitt met in the Air Force and were married for 14 years, before splitting in 2019.

“I feel absolutely terrible and sick to my stomach about it … she had a big head and a strong mind,” McEntee wrote. “She was never afraid to speak her mind and in a way this was her way of speaking her mind (going to the rally).”

McEntee said Babbitt had remarried and owned a small business. She was born and raised in San Diego.

“You would never forget meeting her,” McEntee wrote. “She was very loud and opinionated but caring, sweet, thoughtful, loving.”