An off-duty Pentagon police officer has been indicted on two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder for the April 7 shooting of three men in Takoma Park, Maryland.
David Hall Dixon, 40, who was on his way to work that morning, reportedly spotted a man trying to break into a car in his Takoma Overlook condominium parking lot. When Dixon confronted the man, he got into a car with two other men and sped off.
Dixon fired into the fleeing car and killed two men, striking them both in the back, and wounded the third.
Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said Dixon faces a total of seven counts.
“In the first count, he is charged with the murder of Dominique Wilkins,” McCarthy said. Wilkins was 32 years old.
“In the second count, he is charged with the murder of James Johnson,” who was 38.
In a third count, Dixon is charged with attempted murder. That’s in connection with the wounding of 36-year-old Michael Thomas.
The counts against Dixon carry a possible total sentence of more than 200 years in prison, McCarthy said.
WTOP has contacted Dixon’s lawyer.
Dixon’s attorney William Brennan told the Washington Post that Dixon would “vigorously contest” the charges.
McCarthy pointed out that, “While he is employed as a police officer for the Pentagon,” at the time of the shootings, Dixon “was a private citizen acting on his own without any color of law,” meaning he was not acting in an official capacity.
Dixon was also indicted on assault for an incident in May of last year when he is accused of pointing a shotgun at a homeless woman who had entered the lobby of the condo building where Dixon lived. He also reportedly discharged pepper spray as he confronted the woman.
