A U.S. Park Police officer who shot and killed a 17-year-old from the backseat of a suspected stolen car in Northeast D.C. in March 2023 will not face criminal or civil rights charges, federal prosecutors have announced.
In a statement Thursday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said prosecutors, D.C. and Park Police, plus the FBI, had decided after an investigation that “there is insufficient evidence to pursue federal criminal civil rights or District of Columbia charges,” in the death of Dalaneo Martin.
The unidentified Park Police officer fired the deadly shots from the back seat of the vehicle that Martin was driving.
Prosecutors said after reviewing physical evidence, surveillance and body-worn camera video footage, audio and visual recordings from an ambulance, witness accounts, autopsy records and D.C. police reports, they “found insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the United State (sic) Park Police Officer is criminally liable for Mr. Martin’s death.”
On March 18, 2023, D.C. and Park Police officers responded to a report of a suspicious car, parked on Baker Street NE, near 34th Street. Police found a teenager, later identified as Martin, sleeping in the driver’s seat of what officers believed was a stolen Hyundai.
Police body worn camera video, released two weeks after the shooting, showed officers strategizing how to remove the driver from the vehicle as he slept.
When officers opened the car doors, one Park Police officer climbed into the rear seat of the vehicle and said “Police, don’t move.”
Within seconds, “Mr. Martin woke up, a struggle ensued, and Mr. Martin put the car in drive and accelerated down the street with a United States Park Police Officer in the backseat of the car.”
As the car turned onto Kenilworth Avenue, the officer said “Stop man, just let me out! Let me out. Stop or I’ll shoot.”
According to prosecutors, after the warnings, “the Park Police officer extended his service pistol forward and held the service pistol with a two-handed grip and discharged five shots.”
The car left the road, went up an embankment, and crashed into a house on 36th Street Northeast. Martin was pronounced dead at the scene.
This past March, one year after the shooting, Martin’s family expressed frustration at the lack of information they were receiving during the Department of Justice investigation. In addition to criminal charges against the officer, attorneys said the family could file a civil case to produce changes to prevent deaths like Martin’s.
After the decision to not prosecute the officer, Andrew O. Clarke, an attorney for Martin’s family issued a statement saying Martin didn’t pose “a direct threat to the officer’s safety or to others in the vicinity. Yet, seconds later, he paid the ultimate price in an encounter that never should have ended in the use of lethal force.”
“I am heartbroken but we will not allow this decision to deter us from seeking justice,” said Terra Martin, Dalaneo’s mother.
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