The Capitol Police officer who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt on Jan. 6 defended himself against criticism from former President Donald Trump and others who claim he should not have used lethal force on the 35-year-old Air Force veteran.
In his first public interview since the Capitol riot, Lt. Michael Byrd said it was “disheartening” that Trump, in particular, said Babbitt was “murdered,” adding he would take the same actions if he was in charge of protecting the former president.
“If he was in the room or anywhere, and I’m responsible for him, I was prepared to do the same thing for him and his family,” Byrd told NBC News’s Lester Holt in an interview that aired Thursday.
Byrd shot and killed Babbitt with a single bullet during the Capitol riot as she attempted to climb through a glass-paneled door near the Speaker’s Lobby.
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“It’s all disheartening because I know I was doing my job,” Byrd said of criticism and threats against him. He also addressed suggestions he was politically motivated by saying, “I do my job for Republican, for Democrat, for white, for Black, red, blue, green.”
The Justice Department declined to charge Byrd in connection to the shooting, and the Capitol Police separately found his “actions were consistent with the officer’s training and USCP policies and procedures” and that he “potentially saved Members and staff from serious injury and possible death” at the hands of the rioters.
“Those words meant a lot because that’s exactly what I did on that day,” Byrd said of USCP’s findings. “That was my mission. That was what I prepared for. And it’s rewarding and refreshing to hear that.”
Lt. Michael Byrd, who shot Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt during the Capitol riot, says he has been in hiding for months after he received a flood of death threats and racist attacks.
“I believe I showed the utmost courage on Jan. 6 and it’s time for me to do that now” pic.twitter.com/2kaAxy8yGc
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) August 26, 2021
Trump has demanded “justice” for Babbitt, saying last month he knew who killed her and that those who participated in the Capitol riot, his supporters, have been mistreated.
“If that were the opposite way, that man would be all over — he would be the most well-known — and I believe I can say ‘man’ because I believe I know exactly who it is — but he would be the most well-known person in this country, in the world,” Trump said during a July press conference, announcing a class-action lawsuit against Facebook and Twitter.
Trump also said earlier this month Babbitt was “murdered at the hands of someone who should never have pulled the trigger of his gun.”
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Attorney Terry Roberts, who is preparing a $10 million wrongful death suit against Capitol Police on behalf of Babbitt’s family, called the USCP’s determinations of Byrd’s conduct a “one-sided inquiry” that was conducted “behind closed doors.”
“And it certainly is not an ‘exoneration,” Roberts told the Washington Examiner. “The world has already seen citizens’ videos of the shooting and has reached a different conclusion — one which is far from clearing the officer.”
