Investigators believe they have solved the “painful mystery” of who killed an off-duty Washington, D.C., police officer while he was sitting in a parked car with his date. The case remained on ice for nearly seven years.
Dion Thompson, 24, a repeat offender, allegedly pulled the trigger on the sergeant. Tony Anthony Mason Jr. and the woman committed the crime in November 2017 out of a delusion that they were there to commit a robbery or to get revenge for all the robberies he was committing. The prosecution argued.
Thompson is suspected of driving up next to the car, firing shots at the couple and then fleeing.
Mason, 40, was killed in the ambush, but his date survived.
Thompson remained at large and the case remained unsolved until early 2023 when investigators received information linking him to the career criminal. Thompson was already in jail on unrelated gun and drug charges.
“For too long, the details surrounding Sergeant Sergeant were kept secret. Mason’s tragic death remains a painful mystery,” Metropolitan Police Department Commissioner Pamela A. Smith said Wednesday.
“This arrest is a testament to the dedication of our law enforcement community and the cooperation between our agencies. While we cannot erase the pain of loss or the memory of that day, we can take solace in the fact that those responsible are being brought to justice.” can.”
Thompson, who was 18 at the time of the murder, reportedly told a tipster that he had killed someone in a parked car but did not know who the victim was. According to charging documents.
He spotted the car as he was leaving his friend’s grandmother’s house in Baltimore, and immediately suspected the car was following him for a robbery or revenge for a series of robberies he had committed. I had doubts.
That’s when Thompson allegedly fired at least 16 shots into the car and fled.
Investigators say the couple was just talking, enjoying drinks and listening to music. They had only been dating for a month.
Witnesses told detectives that Thompson later learned from watching the news that the victim was an off-duty police officer.
On the night of the shooting, the suspect reportedly abandoned his car in Philadelphia and bragged to his brother that he had finally killed someone.
Mason, a 17-year veteran of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department, was not in uniform when he was killed. He was also unarmed at the time.
The charging document mentions two other people allegedly involved in the shooting: “Manman” and “Chub.” One person later died in a car accident. Officials said no one has yet been charged in the incident.
Tracking Thompson was easy. He is serving a federal prison sentence on unrelated drug and gun charges.
The case is the first indictment by Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates’ new cold case unit, prosecutors said.
with post wire
