WASHINGTON — Surveillance video played in a D.C. court Friday showed a truck as it plowed through busy Adams Morgan striking two police officers and a traffic control aide, sending them to the hospital.
A judge saw the video during a preliminary hearing for Brandon Figures-Mormon. He is charged with three counts of assault with intent to kill from the June 8 crash.
Testifying for the prosecution, lead detective Jed Worrell played the video showing an officer standing in the painted median when he was blindsided by the truck that was going much faster than other traffic.
“He annihilated him,” Worrell said.
Worrell testified that the passenger in Figures-Mormon’s truck told detectives that Figures-Mormon had been smoking concentrated marijuana from a pipe earlier in the evening at a night club, but that he did not seem affected by it.
The passenger told police he was horrified as Figures-Mormon bore down on the officers.
“(The passenger) said, ‘What are you doing? Stop! Stop!’ But then (Figures-Mormon) continued to accelerate,” Worrell said.
Worrell said the most seriously injured victim remains in the hospital and will need extensive rehabilitation to relearn how to walk.
The judge will decide whether there’s enough evidence for the case to move forward.
The defense team sought to poke holes through witness statements while questioning Worrell about how police and prosecutors put together their facts for the case.
Jacqueline Cadman presented the possibility that Figures-Mormon may have consumed marijuana which was unknowingly laced with something at a marijuana club in Adams Morgan. She also sought to show that a truck malfunction, or a simple loss of control of the vehicle before striking the three can’t be ruled out in the case.
Throughout the hearing, Figures-Mormon remained quiet and showed no emotion while attorneys made their arguments.
The preliminary hearing is set to continue Monday morning.
WTOP’s Mike Murillo contributed to this report.
