I saw this explanation that was pretty solid regarding Babbit vs Good:
Ashley was in the wrong for sure but her case does not merit lethal force while the other does.
The ICE shooting case:
Intent and context:
She was not a bystander. She and her partner deliberately positioned themselves (their vehicle) to obstruct a lawful federal operation and film it. That matters. Courts care about intent and context, not Instagram captions.
Lawful orders:
She was given a lawful command to exit the vehicle. Refusal escalates the encounter from protest to enforcement.
Active flight:
Attempting to flee a lawful detention is itself a crime. That’s a bright-line rule.
Use of vehicle as force:
Striking an officer with a vehicle, even unintentionally during flight, legally transforms the situation. At that point, the vehicle is treated as a deadly weapon under use-of-force standards.
Bottom line:
This becomes a rapidly escalating enforcement scenario where deadly force can be legally justified under federal use-of-force doctrine if an officer reasonably perceives an imminent threat to life.
That doesn’t mean it’s good. It means it’s legally defensible.
Ashley Babbitt:
Location and posture:
She was inside the U.S. Capitol during a breach. That is serious, but context still matters.
Weapon status:
She was unarmed. No firearm. No knife. No vehicle. No improvised weapon.
Distance and barriers:
She was climbing through a broken window into a barricaded area, but multiple armed officers were behind her, with cover, distance, and numerical advantage.
Threat immediacy:
She was not actively attacking an officer. She was not striking anyone. She was not using force capable of causing immediate death or serious bodily harm in that moment.
Alternatives available:
Less-lethal options, physical restraint, or continued containment were all plausibly available given positioning and backup.
Bottom line:
Her actions were criminal and reckless, but the immediacy threshold for deadly force is far more debatable here than in a vehicular assault scenario.
The key legal distinction people keep ignoring: Deadly force hinges on imminent threat, not moral approval.
A fleeing vehicle that strikes or threatens officers
→ commonly meets the imminent threat standard.
An unarmed individual climbing through a window with armed officers in control of the space
→ does not automatically meet that standard.
That’s the crux. Not politics. Not race. Not slogans