To the editor:

During the capital riot on Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol police officer Michael Byrd in effect prescribed the death penalty for protester Ashli Babbitt and carried out the sentence with a single shot from his Glock pistol.

The unarmed Babbitt’s death deserving offence was climbing through a broken window.

While media stooges and sinister political forces try to gaslight the Capitol riot into the Reichstag fire, the decorated Air Force veteran crossed the river Styx for what amounted to trespassing.

Babbitt was different from other high profile police shootings; she had a long history of esteemed patriotic service to her country. Yet there will be no statues erected or city squares named after her.

Ashli Babbitt had no business being in the Capitol building on January 6th, but her biggest mistake was not realizing that the “summer of love” rules didn’t apply to her or thousands of other disaffected Trump supporters.

Gregory Bontrager

Hutchinson