Local Police Reports

Man Convicted in Attack on Off-Duty Police Officer


Washington D.C.–(ENEWSPF)– Eddie L. Mathis, Jr., 38, was found guilty yesterday of attempting to rob an off-duty Metropolitan Police Department officer and then shooting the officer in a December 2003 attack at a Washington, D.C. gas station, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. announced today.

The jury verdict followed a week-long trial in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. The jury found Mathis guilty of assault with intent to commit robbery while armed, assault with a dangerous weapon, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, carrying a dangerous weapon, and unlawful possession of a firearm by a previously convicted felon. Mathis, most recently of Fredericksburg, Va., is to be sentenced September 30 by the Honorable Judge Lynn Leibovitz.

Evidence presented at trial established that off-duty MPD Officer Devinci Wooden was driving home in the late evening of December 18, 2003 when he stopped to fill his gas tank at an Exxon station at the intersection of Alabama and Pennsylvania Avenues SE. Wooden, who was in plain clothes, was standing at the pump when he was approached by Mathis, who had a loaded .45-caliber pistol in his hand, and an accomplice. The assailants demanded that Wooden empty his pockets.

Concerned that they would find his badge hanging around his neck under his jacket and kill him, Wooden ran to the other side of his vehicle and announced he was a police officer. Mathis began shooting at the officer, who fired back in self-defense. During the shootout that ensued, Mathis shot Wooden through the foot, and Wooden shot Mathis in his right waist. Though Mathis escaped from the gas station that night, several citizens came forward and helped law enforcement authorities find a nearby apartment where Mathis was staying at the time. There, he had discarded his bullet-riddled and bloody clothing.

In announcing the verdict, U.S. Attorney Machen commended the work of MPD Detectives Mitchell Credle, Konstantinos Giannakoulias, Carlos Hilliard, Stephen McDonald, and Darryl Richmond, Sixth District MPD Officers Michael Tucker (Retired) and David White, and MPD Crime Scene Technicians Grant Greenwalt, Richard Griffin, and Tony Nwani. He also acknowledged the work of FBI agents as well as Criminal Investigators Christopher Brophy and Melissa Matthews and Intelligence Research Specialist Lawrence Grasso, all of the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He also praised U.S. Attorney’s Office Paralegal Mariam Russell and Litigation Technology Specialists Joe Calvarese, Leif Hickling, and Thomas Royal. Finally, he thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward O’Connell and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Maria Lerner for investigating the case, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ann M. Carroll and Sean P. Tonolli for investigating and indicting it, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tonolli and Steven Swaney for trying the case.

Source: FBI.GOV


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