The former off-duty Pentagon police officer who fatally shot two men in the parking lot of his Takoma Park condo building in April 2021 has been sentenced to 25 years in prison on two counts of second-degree murder.
David Hall Dixon, 42, opened fire on a car in the parking lot of the Takoma Park Overlook Condominiums in the predawn hours of April 7, 2021, firing five shots and fatally striking 38-year-old James Johnson and 32-year-old Dominique Williams.
The sentence handed down by Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Michael Mason came after Dixon gave a statement in court in which he apologized to the victims’ families.
Breaking: David Dixon has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for two counts of second degree murder, in the deaths of two men he shot in the parking lot of his Takoma Park condo in 2021. James Johnson and Dominique Williams were killed.
— Neal Augenstein (@AugensteinWTOP) November 16, 2023
“I am remorseful. I’ll be remorseful for the rest of my life,” Dixon said. “I take full responsibility for my actions. I instinctively reacted, given my law enforcement training. I’m sorry to the families. My heart aches for the families.”
Dixon, who served as an officer with the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, told the judge he’s always tried to live up to the responsibilities as a law enforcement officer.
“On April 7, I failed. I have the deepest sense of remorse for the families.”
Dixon told police he believed the men were trying to break into a parked van.
Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy has previously described Dixon as the “initial aggressor” in the encounter and stressed that Dixon had no police powers in Maryland.
He said that surveillance video from the condo parking lot showed Dixon chasing the men’s car across the parking lot with his gun raised before firing five shots into the back of the car as it was trying to drive away.
“He chased them down, and as they tried to exit the rear parking lot of that condominium complex, he fired five times — after assuming a military position to steady his aim — into the passenger compartment of that car,” McCarthy said at a news conference Thursday following the sentencing.
Both men, who were passengers in the car, were struck in the back.
The driver of the car, Michael Thomas, was not wounded in the shooting. He gave a victim impact statement Thursday, saying his two friends will never see their families again, while Dixon will eventually get out of prison.
Under the terms of a plea deal, Dixon had faced up to 30 years in prison. McCarthy asked the judge to impose the maximum.
The judge said Dixon will be eligible for parole after he has served half his sentence.
Outside the courtroom, family members expressed their frustration that Dixon was not given the maximum sentence.
Speaking on behalf of the families of both victims, Joseph Johnson, a cousin of James Johnson, said even though Dixon will be behind bars, he can still talk to loved ones.
“He can get up and breathe air,” Joseph Johnson said Thursday. “Can my cousin do that? Can Dominque do that? Nope. They can’t. They’re in a casket 6 feet deep.”
Before the sentence was handed down, defense attorney William Brennan had argued the former officer has a lifetime of service in the Air Force and Army and said his entire life should not be evaluated solely on his actions in the few minutes that led to the fatal shooting in April 2021.
McCarthy, the state’s attorney, noted previous instances where Dixon had pulled a gun on someone. About a year before the 2021 shooting, Dixon assaulted a homeless woman in the lobby of his condo, holding her at gunpoint and using mace spray on her to expel her from the building.
“He was directed by the homeowners association to never use a weapon on the property again, and if he ever witnessed anything that amounted to a crime, he should call the police,” McCarthy said. “That is not what he did.”
Dixon had originally gone on trial earlier this year, but a mistrial was declared after the jury deadlocked during deliberations.
He pleaded guilty in September to two counts of second-degree murder.
