Ronald Colton McAbee

Colt chose to pursue a career in law enforcement where he could help others and perhaps help those gone astray to turn their lives around.

After high school, Colt received the opportunity to become a part of the Sheriffs office in Cherokee County, Georgia, so he jumped at it.  Each day when he came home from work, his four-year-old neighbor would be outside watching. Colt had become a hero to the boy. One day, Colt walked next door to talk with the boy. Colt learned that the boy too wanted to become a police officer. Colt told the young boy, “You will be a great officer. You can do good in your community by helping others and you will be able to influence people for good.” The young boy tried on Colt’s shirt and beamed with pride.

Williamson County, in his home state, was looking for Sheriffs, so Colt applied.  He and Sarah were overcome with joy when he was offered a job and they moved to Unionville, Tennessee.

Many awards would follow in his career, including a life-saving award that hangs on his wall.  He did save the life of a man incarcerated.  Another person who knows Colt shared this life changing moment for them of him “… I even watched as Colt pull money from his own wallet to give to an employee of mine that was in need. He did not want an ounce of recognition … because accolades aren’t what this man needs. He has walked through flame and fire to stand for what we know in our hearts is right.”

Colt wore an insignia stating #three percent.  This represented the fact that only three percent of the colonists were in support of the Revolutionary war.  But it was enough and that was encouraging to Colt.

His friends describe Colt as a guy with a big heart, passionate about the things he loved. One of the things Colt loved was his country.  He became a fan of Donald Trump as taxes went down, job opportunities increased, and peace broke out all over the world.  On November 3, 2020, Colt and Sarah stayed up to watch the election returns.  Trump was surging until six swing counties all stopped counting at the same time only to resume hours later with a comfortable lead for Biden.  

When President Trump called citizens to protest the stolen election on January 6, Colt responded.  

He was on medical leave at the time.

All of Colt’s caring traits were on full display on January 6, especially love for his country. When chaos broke out at the Capitol, Colt was helping others around him. He tried to save the life of a fellow patriot, Roseanne Boyland.   She had been sprayed and beaten.  This video below, provided by his wife Sarah, shows Colt kneeling down while Roseanne was on the ground.  He loosened her garments and shared his CPR knowledge with another who was attending to her.  

The DOJ account is: As the officers arrived, hundreds of individuals gathered outside the Archway, some throwing and/or swinging various makeshift weapons at the group of officers. At about 4:27 p.m., an MPD (Metro Police) knocked to the ground, kicked, and stripped of his baton.  After the officer was knocked to the ground, Colt stepped into the Archway, grabbed the officer’s leg, and pulled him further towards the crowd. When a second MPD officer stepped off the police line to assist the downed officer, Colt stood up, yelled at the officer who had stepped out to assist, and then swung his arms and hands towards the officer’s head and torso. Colt made contact with the officer and was wearing reinforced knuckle gloves at the time of the assault.

The DOJ hid this exculpatory evidence for the trial (exculpatory means proving innocence).  But it is now available.  This video tells a different story:

Ronald Colton McAbee Rendering Life-Saving Aid to Rosanne Boyland & Helping Police Officers (rumble.com)

Roseanne Boyland was on the ground struggling from both tear gas and being beaten with a baton by an MPD officer.  Colt was attempting to revive her.  In the video, you can hear Congressman Gohmert later on the congressional floor try and understand why Colt would be vilified for his valiant attempts to save both Roseanne Boylands life and help a Capitol Police Officer.  The Judge refused to look at the video and disallowed it as evidence for the jury.

Colt was arrested in Nashville on August 17, 2021.  A federal magistrate judge in Tennessee ordered Colt released with conditions, including to “refrain from using any social media or other websites related to insurrection activity.” But the DOJ filed an emergency appeal of the judge’s ruling, and the matter was reviewed during a hearing before U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan on Wednesday and Colt was sent to the DC Gulag.

Ronald Colton McAbee entered this Not Guilty plea on 2/7/22.  The trial was set for 9/23/23.

In court filings ahead of the hearing, the U.S. government argued that Colt “dressed in a manner that indicates that he anticipated violence at the Capitol” by purchasing “metal-knuckled gloves,” wearing a tactical vest, and arming himself with a baton on the scene.

Judge Sullivan called Colt’s decision to wear a “Sheriff” patch while he attempted to storm Congress on Jan. 6 “outrageous” and said videos apparently showing Colt attacking officers were “very disturbing.” While Colt’s defense attorney explained that Colt was aiding one officer and only pushed another officer after the officer pushed him, Sullivan said it “appears clearly to this court” that the video showed Colt pulling an officer into the violent mob.  Sullivan also questioned how a law enforcement officer who took part in the Jan. 6 attack could be trusted to obey restrictions imposed upon him by a judge.  “He’s raised his right hand, probably put his left hand on the Bible, more than once and swore to administer justice,” Sullivan said. “If he didn’t do that on Jan. 6, how can the court take any comfort in knowing that he will abide by the court’s directives to do certain things going forward?”

The DOJ argued that Colt couldn’t be trusted and had used his status as a law enforcement officer to attempt to breach the police line on Jan. 6.

In September of 2023, the DOJ offered Colt a deal so he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of assaulting, resisting or impeding an officer, as well as a misdemeanor charge of an act of physical violence on the Capitol grounds. Colt, now 29, admitted that he “swung his arms and hands” toward an officer’s head and torso, making contact with the officer while he was wearing reinforced gloves.  This enabled the court to slam him, Colt was convicted of five felonies, including assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers; civil disorder; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; and engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon.

Although she felt her husband’s Jan. 6 criminal trial went very well on the evidence, Sarah McAbee tried to be a realist, knowing no defendant across 660 cases related to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, has been acquitted by a Washington D.C. jury.  “My heart was just pounding out of my chest as I was trying to sit there so strongly for him,” Ms. McAbee said, referring to her husband.  “To hear these words that were coming out of their mouth, it was … a very surreal moment,” Ms. McAbee, 28, said of the moment the guilty verdicts were read on five felony charges. 

The jury pool included five potential jurors who sat on another D.C. jury as recently as a week prior, Ms. McAbee said. That fact also worries defense attorneys, as the jury pool has been stretched beyond its limits by the unprecedented number of Jan. 6 cases.

Their Christian faith has been a key to keeping the McAbee’s strong throughout the more than two-year ordeal—and for whatever time is yet to come before he is released from custody.

“As we say, this is bigger than all of us,” Ms. McAbee said. “So we’ve just continued to keep the faith and walk this tightrope because we know who’s in control, and the end is not here yet.”