A New Jersey man has been arrested after he gave an on-camera interview in which he admitted to being in the Capitol Building during the D.C. insurrection, and was next to Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt, 35, as she was fatally shot by law enforcement. Thomas Baranyi, 28, was apprehended Tuesday and charged with disorderly or disruptive conduct, according to NJ.com.
That’s him speaking to WUSA9 in the video above.
“We tore through the scaffolding, through flashbangs and teargas,” he said. “And blitzed our way in.”
Baranyi and other supporters of President Donald Trump took over the Capitol Building last Wednesday after POTUS continued to lie that he actually won the 2020 presidential election and that it was stolen from him.
Baranyi also said he was there when Babbitt was shot in the neck.
“A number of police and Secret Service was saying get back, get back, get out of the way, and she didn’t heed the call,” Baranyi said. “And as we kind of raced up to grab people and pull them back, they shot her in the neck.”
Footage below shows the moment that Babbitt was shot. A group had been trying to break through a barricaded door to the Speaker’s Lobby, and Babbitt began climbing through a smashed up window.
[Warning: Video is disturbing.]
Perhaps it is no surprise that the interview with WUSA9 and the video of the shooting were being used against Baranyi.
ANOTHER US Capitol arrest. This guy seems to have made it easy for law enforcement to arrest him pic.twitter.com/5arpq6sc5E
— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) January 13, 2021
Baranyi was reportedly represented in a New Jersey court by a public defender, but plans on getting a private attorney.
[Screengrab via WUSA9]
