Bill Badger, who was credited with saving lives during the 2011 shooting in Arizona that critically injured Representative Gabrielle Giffords, died on Wednesday. He was 78.
The cause was pneumonia, said his wife, Sallie Badger. She did not say where he died.
Mr. Badger was wounded — a bullet grazed the back of his head — in January 2011 in a grocery store parking lot near Tucson at a constituent event for Ms. Giffords, a Democrat. He nonetheless managed to tackle the shooter, Jared L. Loughner, and helped others hold him down and disarm him before the police arrived. Ms. Giffords was shot in the head at close range.
Six people were killed and 13 people injured in the shooting. Ms. Giffords, who resigned her House seat, is partly paralyzed, with impaired vision and limited speech.
Mr. Loughner is serving seven consecutive life terms in prison.
“I believe that Bill helped save lives that morning,” Ms. Giffords said in a statement. “I will always be grateful to him for his selfless, brave actions.”
Mr. Badger, who was born in South Dakota, joined the National Guard as a high school junior and was an Army pilot for 37 years. He and his wife moved to Arizona in 1985 when he established the Western Army Aviation Training Site in Marana, just outside Tucson.
In addition to his wife, his survivors include a son, Christian.
Mr. Badger was not permanently injured in the shooting, but he showed signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, his wife said.
The Badgers traveled across the country to push for stricter gun laws. “We wanted desperately to have background checks on every gun that was sold,” Ms. Badger said. “And Bill just made that his mission.”
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