WATCH: Jan 6 Rioter Hugs Police Officers Injured Defending Capitol From Mob He Joined
A Jan. 6 rioter awaiting sentencing apologized to a number of U.S. Capitol Police officers after he testified during Tuesday’s House select committee hearing.
Stephen Ayres testified before the committee on Tuesday about the riot and what led to it. He is facing jail time for entering the Capitol on Jan. 6.
After Tuesday’s hearing concluded, Ayres made his way over to Harry Dunn, Michael Fanone and Aquilino Gonnell, three officers who were at the Capitol as it was overrun.
Video captured by C-SPAN showed him speaking individually with each man and shaking their hands.
Politico’s Kyle Cheney captured the moment and spoke to Fanone afterward.
Jan. 6 defendant Ayres now embracing the Capitol Police and DC officers who defended the Capitol from a mob he was part of. pic.twitter.com/Q2x0g1sbr2
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) July 12, 2022
FANONE just told us that he responded to Ayres by saying “No apology necessary.”
He added, it “doesn’t really do shit for me. I hope it does something for him.”
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) July 12, 2022
Other angles on the moment soon made their way out to media.
Oliver Contreras/AFP, via Getty Images
Washington Post‘s Jacqueline Alemany shared video of the “extraordinary moment.”
Another extraordinary moment: Stephen Ayres approached former USCP Dunn, Fanone, Gonnell – and apologized: pic.twitter.com/GBqJ5yIqJt
— Jacqueline Alemany (@JaxAlemany) July 12, 2022
Ryan Reilly of NBC News reported a woman skipped over by Ayres is Erin Smith, widow of Capitol officer Jeffrey Smith who committed suicide after the riot.
The woman he skips here, seated next to Mike Fanone, is Erin Smith. Her husband, the late Jeffrey Smith, died by suicide days after he was violently assaulted during the Jan. 6 attack. https://t.co/g1puUmRUKx
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) July 12, 2022
Ayres came back to Smith a few moments later and the two hugged.
Ayres told the committee he stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 because he felt former President Donald Trump called on him to do so.
“Well, basically the president got everybody riled up, told everybody to head on down. So we basically–we were just following what he said,” Ayres said.
He said that after attending Trump’s morning rally on the day of the riot, he felt “angry” and joined others who converged on the Capitol.
He has said since his arrest he views Trump’s stolen election claims as baseless.
Ayres pleaded guilty to disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building in June, the New York Times reported. He will be sentenced for the misdemeanor in September.
Watch above, via C-SPAN.
