Justice Served After 7 Years: Arrest Made in Fatal Shooting of Off-Duty DC Police Officer and Girlfriend in Baltimore

The prosecution office in Baltimore announced on Wednesday that they had arrested a man in connection to the shooting of a Washington Police Officer and his girlfriend which happened in 2017. Sgt. Tony Anthony Mason Jr. was sitting in a parked car with his girlfriend while he was off duty in 2017 when he was shot dead. Police also revealed that his girlfriend was also shot but she survived. 

In a statement released by the prosecutors, the homicide case sat cold for five years before Baltimore detectives received a tip last year, 2023 which made them reopen their investigation and charge Dion Thompson. The suspect who was 18 years old at the time of the shooting is serving time on unrelated drug and gun charges.

The charging documents of the shooting do not show a clear motive for the crime. The statements are also based on an account of someone who knew the accused but did not witness the crime himself. The person giving the account further said that Thompson admitted to shooting the occupants of a parked car when he was leaving his friend’s grandmother’s house when he did not recognise the vehicle and assumed that they “were there to rob him or retaliate for all the robberies that he was committing”.

The prosecutors stated that Thompson left the scene and abandoned the car he was using to shoot the officer after he saw the news and realised that the victim was a police officer.

The Metropolitan Police Department chief, Pamela Smith spoke on the new development saying, “For far too long, the details surrounding Sergeant Mason’s tragic death have remained a painful mystery. While we cannot erase the pain of loss or the memories of that day, we can take solace that the person responsible is being brought to justice”.