Thread by @TaylerUSA

One year ago at 2:44PM, I witnessed something that would change my life forever--

There isn't a day that has gone by since the 6th that I haven't thought about the way Ashli Babbitt was killed before my eyes.

[THREAD]

Every day the situation replays in my head, almost feeling as real as when the shooting took place. I remember what it felt like at that moment as a Journalist with very little medical training trying to shine sufficient light on her so we could unravel the scarf to tend to her--

The feeling of complete helplessness as I was trying my best to help her while being surrounded by Officers who said they would help only to watch her lay there in the hallway after they pushed trained medics away from her--

I remember yelling "he's got a gun" only for no one to hear me. I also remember how there was no verbal warning from Michael Byrd before he lunged from the corner he was hiding around. I remember stumbling out of the Capitol in a daze, being numb for days.

I remember being ignored by "allies" because they were too scared to say Byrd's name after I went public with his identity. I remember those who ran and promoted disinformation pieces and ignored my work knowing they were helping cover up a murder.

I remember the countless calls I received from concerned Reporters that had experienced something similar during the "Summer of Love".

I also remember the harassment I faced for simply doing my job. I remember the 3AM calls from "Investigative Reporters" for months on end.

I remember being completely cut off from my income and way of life because I chose to speak the truth about what I saw that day instead of shutting up and peddling misinformation like I was told to do.

I can still taste the chemicals that were in the air and the pain that came with it, the rubber bullets hitting me in the back and legs, the pepper balls and the concussion grenades being lobbed directly at me and others--

The screams and the crying that followed.

I've covered riots across the country, but I have never seen people brutalized by the State the way they were on the 6th.

I never stopped talking about January 6th because it would morally be the wrong thing to do after the number of horrors I witnessed. --

What I saw and experienced that day changed me and nothing has ever been the same since.