Tonnette Byrd

I am a retired Federal Special Agent with twenty-eight years of service as a public servant. Prior to my retirement, I was a Special Agent with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and served as a U.S. Federal Air Marshal assigned to the Dallas Field Office. I joined the U.S. Federal Air Marshal Service shortly after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, and started my assignment in Newark, New Jersey in 2002. I retired from the U.S. Federal Air Marshal Service (Dallas Field Office) in March 2018.

My duty as a U.S. Federal Air Marshal was to detect, deter and defeat hostile acts against aviation. I was deployed on passenger flights worldwide both domestic and international to prevent hijackings and to protect airline passengers and crew against the risk of criminal and terroristic violence.

My employment with the U.S. Federal Air Marshal Service lasted nearly sixteen years. During my tenure, I was promoted to Senior Federal Air Marshal and served as a Team Leader. I oversaw all aspects of the domestic and international deployments of my team. I conducted and participated in criminal investigations related to the transportation sector and the protection of the homeland.

I also served as the first liaison U.S Federal Air Marshal in the Dallas Field Office where my duties included working with U.S. domestic and International airline staff and crew and provided logistical support, and monthly intelligence briefings. I also served as an Acting/Supervisory Special Agent in Charge for a team of twenty federal agents.

Prior to my tenure at the U.S. Federal Air Marshal Service, I was employed for twelve and a half years at the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department in Dallas, Texas. I joined the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department in 1990 as a civilian clerk and quickly rose through the ranks to Senior Sergeant. During my tenure at the department I worked in several capacities that included, a Detention Service Officer where I worked in the Dallas County jails, a bicycle officer, a detective in the Criminal Warrant Execution Division, a detective in the Crime Scene Division, and promoted to Senior Sergeant in 1998, where I worked in the Civil Writ Execution Division. In 2002, I joined the U.S. Federal Air Marshal Service.

Social Consciousness

In 2012, I started the Dare to Care Charity Campaign and Until Justice, two voluntary community service projects that allowed the men and women of the U.S. Federal Air Marshal Service an opportunity to help those in need by giving back to the community in which we served. Our agents collected over 4,500 toiletry items and donated them to families affected by domestic abuse and family violence. I chose Genesis Women’s Shelter in Dallas, Texas, as the recipient of those items because of their ongoing efforts to assist families in need specifically women and children while they made changes in their lives as they transitioned from adverse living conditions to a healthier environment.

Today, I spend my time as the Director of my corporation, Until Justice Corp, and serve as a relentless advocate for change working in the waterless community of Sandbranch, in Dallas County, Texas. Sandbranch is the only unincorporated “freedmen” settlement without water, sewage and other municipal services. Sandbranch was founded 1878 by freed slaves and is located just 17 miles of one of the richest cities in the country, Dallas.

The community of Sandbranch has never had fresh running water during its existence. The community does not have garbage waste disposal services, which leads the residents to burn their trash on their property or haul it out of the community. Up until the 1980’s this community survived off of well water. Since the 1980’s, the well water is so severely contaminated and polluted that the residents are unable to drink it. The residents in Sandbranch depend solely on bottled water and survive off of donations of bottled water that comes from people outside of the community.

On August 1, 2020, I organized a humanitarian movement and collected over 800 cases and 20,000 bottles of water through donations and delivered that water to Sandbranch, a community in crisis! During the past 3 years, I have organized over 22 water drives for the community of Sandbranch, which has resulted in over 1 million bottles of donated water for the community. Until Justice Corp will continue to be a voice to the voiceless and will not rest until the Sandbranch community is liberated and receives true justice and equity!

In 2021, I received the Omega Citizen of the Year award from Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc. This award recognized outstanding and unusual contributions to humanity.

I am a mother of a beautiful daughter who will start college as a freshman in the Fall.