Capitol Officer Who Shot Ashli Babbitt During January 6 Attack Speaks Out

The Capitol police officer who fatally shot rioter Ashli Babbitt broke his silence Thursday evening during an interview on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt.

Lt. Michael Byrd, a 28-year veteran of the Capitol Police whose identity had not been revealed until today, does not doubt that he made the right decision that day.

“I know that day I saved countless lives,” Byrd said. Between 60 to 80 House members and staffers were holed up inside, and it was Byrd’s job to protect them.

“I know members of Congress, as well as my fellow officers and staff, were in jeopardy and in serious danger. And that’s my job,” he added.

When rioters stormed through the Capitol, Byrd and other officers set up a wall of furniture outside the doors.

“If they get through that door, they’re into the House chamber and upon the members of Congress,” Bryd told Holt.

All while barricading the doors, Byrd could hear alarming messages coming in on his police radio. Some of the messages that came through included an officer’s fingertips being blown off and screams from his colleagues under attack by rioters with chemical agents.

“It was literally broadcast over the air,” Byrd said. “I said, ‘OK, this is getting serious.’”

Soon after that, rioters reached the door. In a defensive stance with his gun drawn as rioters smashed the glass doors, Byrd repeatedly asked them to get back. The mob of people pressed on with one individual even trying to climb through the door. Byrd then fired one shot, striking Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran and avid Trump supporter, in the shoulder. She later succumbed to the injury.

Since the incident, Byrd, who is Black, claims his life has been turned upside down as he’s received death threats and racist attacks once his name leaked onto right-wing websites. Still, he believes he made the right decision.

“I tried to wait as long as I could,” he told Holt. “I hoped and prayed no one tried to enter through those doors. But their failure to comply required me to take the appropriate action to save the lives of members of Congress and myself and my fellow officers.”

This past Monday, the Justice Department cleared Byrd of any wrongdoing and said he acted lawfully and within the department’s policy.

“The investigation revealed no evidence to establish that, at the time the officer fired a single shot at Ms. Babbitt, the officer did not reasonably believe that it was necessary to do so in self-defense or in defense of the Members of Congress and others evacuating the House Chamber,” federal prosecutors said in a statement.