A D.C. police sergeant is charged with killing and violating the civil rights of a man who tried to drive away when police woke him up inside his running car.
In August 2021, a group of D.C. police officers walked up to a running car, wondering about the state of the driver. Body camera video showed they found 27-year-old An’Twan Gilmore sleeping in the driver’s seat with a gun in his waistband.
After tapping on the window and waking him up, Gilmore tried to drive the car. That’s when D.C. police Sgt. Enis Jevric shot him 10 times. Shortly after the shooting, police Chief Robert Contee said the incident went against department policies.
In a federal indictment now unsealed, a grand jury handed up charges of second-degree murder and a federal civil rights violation. The jury contends that Jevric willfully deprived Gilmore of the right to be free from the use of excessive force.
The FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office investigated the case.
“We thoroughly investigate every incident where one of our fellow citizens dies during an interaction with law enforcement,” U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves said in a statement. “We have found that most officers use force only when necessary. In these investigations, we follow the evidence and the law. In the overwhelming majority of these cases, criminal charges would not be appropriate. But when an officer willfully disregards the safety of a citizen he is sworn to protect, he violates the trust placed in him by virtue of his badge.”
Jevric has been on administrative leave from the police department since the shooting.
