5 Years Later: How MAGA Vilified a Black Hero and Turned a Capitol Rioter into a Martyr

Tuesday marks the five-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol Insurrection — which was supposed to be a regular work day for Lt. Michael Byrd.

His team met earlier to review security plans for the historic certification of then President Joe Biden’s election victory. There was no way to know a simmering crowd of MAGA supporters would soon take their frustrations over the election results on the U.S. Capitol.

Among those starting to boil in the crowd was a woman named Ashli Babbit, who flew to Washington, D.C. to participate in President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally. Several videos and broadcasts from the day show her dressed in MAGA gear and using poles to vandalize the building. Byrd wasn’t watching the live broadcasts, however.

Around 1 p.m., a fellow Capitol guard called for backup, according to a timeline from BBC. Soon, a crowd of election deniers attempted to break the windows to the Congress hobby.

The rioters refused to back down. Even Babbit started to climb through the Congress window. Faced with the unthinkable, Byrd pulled out his firearm and fired a single shot in Babbit’s shoulder. She later died. The Justice Department cleared him of any wrongdoing, but that didn’t stop many in MAGA from capitalizing off the tragedy.

“What’s important to highlight here is the glorification of Ashli Babbitt and her death is not actually about her. It’s about the narrative,” Alex Friedfeld, an investigative researcher at the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, told WUSA 9. “There were other people who died that day. But we have not seen their stories used in the same way as Ashli Babbitt’s because it did not fit the us-vs-them narrative that hers so clearly does. And so they have largely been forgotten or ignored, while Babbitt has been turned into a symbol in order to advance the cause.”

Even before Babbit’s identity was known, far-right Texas Republican Larry Brock Jr. were already calling her the “first Patriot Martyr in the Second American Revolution” on Facebook. In the days following her death, her image became co-opted for a new MAGA movement.

Byrd also became the perfect target for Trump and other MAGA Republicans, who began the “Who killed Ashli Babbitt?” campaign. Babbit’s husband even sued the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in order to have Byrd’s name made public that summer, Business Insider reported.

It had only been one year since the murder of George Floyd, and racial tension was still at an historic high in the country. Babbit’s killing only exacerbated the issue. Once the Black officer’s identity was exposed, the officer received countless death threats, which even forced him into hiding, according to NBC News.

Still, Byrd said he’s sure he did the right thing. “I know that day I saved countless lives,” he told NBC . “I know members of Congress, as well as my fellow officers and staff, were in jeopardy and in serious danger. And that’s my job.”

He was promoted to Captain in 2023, according to Roll Call. Meanwhile, Babbit’s family filed another lawsuit accusing Byrd and MPD of negligence. The city settled the civil suit for nearly $5 million.