Husband of Capitol Rioter Ashli Babbitt Says She Wouldn’t Have Died If He Was There

One year after Ashli Babbitt was fatally shot during the Jan. 6 insurrection, the late Air Force veteran’s husband, Aaron Babbitt, spoke with TMZ about how things would’ve been different had he accompanied his wife to Washington D.C. on that fateful day.

When asked if he wished he had gone with Ashli to the Capitol on Jan. 6, Aaron replied, “Yeah, of course. Nobody’s going to watch over her [Ashli] or watch her back better than I could have. But I can’t look at it like that.”

As for what he would have done had he been with his late wife during the Capitol riot, Aaron said, “We never would’ve been in the Capitol, for one. That never would’ve happened.”

“I would’ve noticed something wrong was going on around there,” Babbitt added. “I’m a very vigilant person.”

Ashli, a 35-year-old from San Diego, was shot in the shoulder by Michael Byrd, a lieutenant for the U.S. Capitol Police, while trying to climb through a barricaded door near the House chamber alongside other Trump supporters.

In April 2021, the Justice Department announced that it would not pursue criminal charges against Byrd. Per a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., authorities determined there was not enough evidence to support that Byrd violated civil rights laws in the shooting.

“The federal 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,” the statement said. 

Back in August, Byrd spoke about the shooting with Lester Holt for NBC News. You can watch the interview below.