A Pentagon police officer accused of fatally shooting two men who “thought” they were stealing a car in the parking lot of his Maryland condominium complex this week has a history of throwing guns at his building, according to a video last year that he now has law enforcement examining the officer more closely.
David Hall Dixon aimed a gun at a homeless woman in the lobby of his apartment complex on an evening in May 2020 and barked for her to leave, according to the images. Takoma Park police plan to file charges against him “for his actions in assaulting her,” WJLA reports.
According to reports, Dixon had told the woman to leave the building after a series of interruptions. When she didn’t, he went back to his apartment and brought her what looked like a shotgun. He pointed the gun at her and repeated his orders to leave the premises, and she did so, pulling a red shopping cart with her. Dixon followed her through the doors. He did not fire the weapon.
Dixon, a Pentagon Force Protection Agency official since 2019, has been charged with two felony counts of second-degree murder for allegedly murdering 32-year-old Hyattsville resident Dominique Williams and James Lionel Johnson of 38 years. District Heights resident, in the parking lot of the same building, Wednesday morning.
Dixon was arrested Friday and remains in jail without bail. He has been placed on administrative leave by the Pentagon Force.
Relatives described the two victims as best friends. Johnson was the father of three children, including a child. His cousin Marcus Cornegay said at a press conference on Friday: “He treated everyone who crossed paths with love and respect, as if they were family. As a family we are really struggling with this trying to put logic around why it was taken away from us ”.
A family lawyer, David Haynes, said Johnson and Williams were “shot and killed in cold blood, for no reason, without justification.”
Takoma Park police said that when his officers arrived at the scene around 5 a.m. Wednesday, Dixon approached them and said he had seen what he “thought” was an attempt to car theft.
According to the cargo documents reported by The Washington Post, Dixon identified himself as an off-duty Pentagon agent and told police he was leaving for work when he noticed a Lexus, with its headlights off, driving through the parking lot.
He said he saw one of the Lexus men trying to break the window of another car in the parking lot before. He said he confronted Lexus men but “gasified” him and tried to run him over, causing him to open fire.
But surveillance footage showed Dixon firing as the car pulled away, say the loading documents.
Although authorities determined that there had been an attempted car theft, they said the car with the three men inside “no longer posed an immediate threat that would have justified the use of deadly force.” .
Takoma Park police chief Antonio DeVaul said Friday that Dixon had “no lawful or justifiable reason” to fire the service weapon: “He was a civilian acting as a civilian, who was a police officer. in another jurisdiction “.
DeVaul added that the overview of Dixon’s facts “was inconsistent with the evidence and facts of the case.”
Williams and Johnson were taken to a nearby St. Louis hospital. George for treating gunshot wounds to the upper back, wounds that a medical examiner said were consistent to shoot from behind. They both died there.
A third man, Michael Thomas, 36, was driving the car. Dixon faces additional charges of attempted second-degree homicide to open fire on Thomas, in addition to reckless danger and use of a handgun in the commission of a felony. Thomas has not been charged with a crime.
Dixon is not alone in the Pentagon Force when it comes to pulling out his service weapon while on duty. Another officer shot a 16-year-old man who he said stole him on the evening of March 24 in Washington, DC
The acting director of the office said leaders would conduct training in response to both incidents “to ensure” [officers] to have a complete understanding of their responsibilities outside the service ”.