The off-duty D.C. police officer wounded after his vehicle was shot at while he was on his way to work earlier this week suffered “lacerations to his eyes and forehead from glass shards,” according to court documents filed in D.C. Superior Court on Friday.
The new details on the officer’s injuries come as one of the two men suspected in the shooting made his first court appearance in D.C.
Police said William Walker was inside a blue Honda Accord that authorities pursued into Prince George’s County, Maryland, after the gunfire, before it crashed and the two men were arrested.
Walker, who was extradited to D.C., is charged with assault with a deadly weapon and fleeing a law enforcement officer. In his first appearance, he was ordered held without bond. The other suspect in the shooting, 21-year-old Rasheed Thorne, has not yet been extradited and remains in Prince George’s County.
Officer recorded erratic driving on his cellphone
The officer who was wounded, a D.C. police captain with 18 years on the force, was taken to the hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening. He has not been publicly identified. Police initially told reporters the officer had been shot, but at a news conference later that day said they were still trying to determine whether he actually suffered a gunshot wound or was hurt by shattered glass.
The officer was driving in his personal vehicle, a black SUV, on his way to work at the Fourth District police station in Northwest D.C. on Monday afternoon, when he noticed a blue car behind him driving erratically, according to an account of the shooting described in court documents.
The officer said the blue car pulled to his right and then abruptly sped up to cut in front of him multiple times. At one point, when the other car had overtaken him, the officer pulled out his cellphone to start recording, according to the documents.
The shooting occurred around 12:10 p.m. when the blue car pulled into an alley and one person jumped out of the passenger side and fired multiple shots at the officer’s SUV, which was still on the street.
The officer was able to drive to the nearby Fourth District police station for help and was also able to provide a partial license plate that was used to locate and track the suspects’ vehicle. Authorities said a license plate reader on Bladensburg Road in Northeast D.C. then logged the blue Honda heading southbound about 20 minutes later, according to the documents.
Docs: Gun thrown from fleeing car
Aided by a police helicopter, officers pursued the vehicle into Prince George’s County, where, on Landover Road near Kent Town Place, officers saw one of the occupants throwing something from the window before the car crashed and rolled over on its side in the middle of the roadway.
Walker and Thorne were both taken into custody. Police said they later found a tan-colored 9 mm Springfield Hellcat semiautomatic handgun along the side of the road.
In video captured by WTOP’s John Domen, police were seen appearing to recover the gun less than 100 yards from the crash.
Here’s video of police recovering a gun less than 100 yards from the crash pic.twitter.com/yqXH88913q
— John Domen (@JDDsays) May 20, 2024
Both Walker and Thorne are also charged with firearms offenses in Prince George’s County. Court documents filed in District Court there indicate that both men are prohibited from having guns because of previous gun convictions.
Walker was convicted of gun possession in December 2021 and March 2022, according to online court records.
Thorne, who still remains in Prince George’s County, was convicted of attempting to carry a pistol without a license in D.C. in September.
In court documents in D.C., Walker is identified as the driver of the blue Honda. However, in the documents filed in Prince George’s County, authorities identified Thorne as the driver and Walker as the front-seat passenger.
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