A US Capitol Police officer who fatally shot a woman as she tried to force her way into the House of Representatives during a Jan. 6 attack said the shooting was a “last resort” because he believed she posed a threat to members of Congress.
“I tried to wait as long as I could,” police Lieutenant Michael Byrd said in an interview with NBC Nightly News that aired on Thursday, in what were his first public remarks since the violence.
“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,” he said.
Photo: Reuters
Byrd described the shooting as an act of “last resort,” as he spoke publicly three days after a review by the Capitol Police concluded that he had acted lawfully and within department policy in shooting the supporter of then-US president Donald Trump as she tried to force her way through a smashed window into the House of Representatives’ Speaker’s Lobby.
“It was a very terrifying situation,” Byrd said.
The shooting of Ashli Babbitt, 35, came on a day of violence that saw hundreds of Trump supporters fight their way into the Capitol, attacking police and sending lawmakers running.
Babbitt was a US Air Force veteran who embraced far-right conspiracy theories on social media, including Trump’s false assertions that his presidential election loss last year was due to fraud. She was one of four participants in the riot to die on Jan. 6.
Far-right groups have embraced Babbitt as a martyr, arguing she was murdered. Her cause has also been taken up by Trump, who falsely claimed last month that the officer who shot her was the “head of security” for a “high-ranking” Democratic member of Congress.
The Capitol Police review of the shooting concluded that it might have saved lives.
“The actions of the officer in this case potentially saved members and staff from serious injury and possible death from a large crowd of rioters,” the department said.
It added that the officer’s family had “been the subject of numerous credible and specific threats.”
Meanwhile, seven US Capitol Police officers on Thursday sued Trump, alleging that he conspired with far-right extremist groups to provoke the attack.
The officers in a lawsuit filed in a Washington federal court said that the attack was the culmination of months of rhetoric from Trump, who they say knew of the potential for violence and actively encouraged it in hopes of halting the certification of US President Joe Biden’s election victory.
Police officers who fought the mob recounted scenes of violence in which rioters beat them, taunted them with racist insults and threatened to kill an officer “with his own gun” in testimony last month to a congressional committee.
A Capitol Police officer who had been attacked by rioters died the following day. Four police officers who took part in the defense of the Capitol later took their own lives. More than 100 police officers were injured.
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